2358  | 

163 
I?' 


UC-NRLF 


SB    SbM    ISM 


PROCEEDINGS 


OF    THE 


INDIANA 


EPUBLICAN    STATE    CONVENTION 


HELD   IN  INDIANAPOLIS, 


Thursday,    February    SO,    1868. 


INDIANAPOLIS: 

DOUGLASS    &    COKJTIRj  ,  J,0„U  H  N  A  L„  OFFICE,     PRINTERS 
*..'   •     1368; 


REPUBLICAN  STATE  TICKET. 


FOR  GOVERNOR, 

Colonel  CONRAD  BAKER,  of  Vanderburg. 

FOR  LIEUTENANT  GOVERNOR, 

Colonel  WILL  CUMBACK,  of  Decatur. 

FOR  SECRETARY  OF   STATE, 

Dr.  MAX  F.  A.  HOFFMAN,  of  Cass. 

FOR  AUDITOR   OF  STATE, 

Major  J.  D.  EVANS,  of  Hamilton.      * 

FOR   TREASURER  OF   STATE, 

General  NATHAN  KIMBALL,  of  Martin. 

FOR   CLERK   OF   THE   SUPREME   COURT, 

Captain  THEODORE  W.  McCOY,  of  Clarke. 

FOR  REPORTER  OF  THE  SUPREME  COURT, 

Colonel  JAMES  B.  BLACK,  of  Marion. 

FOR  ATTORNEY  GENERAL, 

DELANA  E.  WILLIAMSON,  of  Putnam. 

FOR   SUPERINTENDENT   OF   PUBLIC    INSTRUCTION, 

BARNABAS  C.  HOBBS,  of  Wayne. 

*       FOR  THE  STATE   AT   LARGE. 

Hon.  Thomas  H.  Nelson,  of  Vigo. 
Hon.  Benjamin  F.  Claypool,  of  Fayette. 

CONTINGENTS. 

Hon.  John  TJ.  Pettit,  of  Wabash. 

Gen.  George  D.  Wagner,  of  Warren. 

First  District — A.  L.  Robinson,  of  Vanderburgh: 
Contingent — J.  W.  Wharton,  of  Spencer. 

Second  District — Major  William  T.  Jones,  of  Har- 
rison; Contingent — Aaron  Houghton,  of  Martin. 

Third  District — Captain  John  Schwartz,  of  Dear- 
born; Contingent — Major  R.  H.  Litson,  of  Jefferson. 

Fourth  District — John  H.  Farquhar,  of  Franklin ; 
Contingent — Jacob  P.  Julian,  of  Wayne. 

Fifth  District— Colonel  Samuel  P.  Oyler  of  John- 
son; Contingent — Dr.  Levi  Ritter,  of  Hendricks. 

Sixth  District— Captain  E.  E.  Rose,  of  Lawrence ; 
Contingent — Colonel  JohnT.  Smith,  of  Greene. 

Seventh  District — R.  W.  Harrison,  of  Boone;  Con- 
tingent— M.  L.  Milford,  of  Fountain. 

Eighth  District — J.   F.  Justice,  of  Cass ;  Contin- 
gent— David  C.  Medsker,  of  Howard. 

Ninth  District— J.  H.  Mellett,  of  Henry ;  Contin- 
gent—W.  H.  H.  Miller,  of  Allen." 

Tenth  District— General  Milo  S.  Hascall,  of  Elk- 
hart ;  Contingent— James  S.  Carpenter,  of  Kosciusko. 

Eleventh   District — General    Jasper    Packard,  of 
Laporte;  Contingent — R.  S.  Dwiggins,  of  Jasper. 


PEOCEEDINGS 


Morrison's  Opera  Hall  was  early  filled  with  del- 
egates to  the  Republican  State  Convention,  and  if 
it  had  been  thought  proper  to  transact  the  busi- 
ness in  the  open  air,  the  assemblage  would  have 
outnumbered  that  of  almost  any  similar  gathering 
held  since  the  formation  of  the  party.  As  it  was, 
floor  and  gallery  were  crowded  with  delegates, 
the  aisles  filled,  and  the  stage  so  uncomfortably 
crowded  that  it  was  impossible  to  transact  the 
necessary  business.  The  stage  was  handsomely 
festooned  and  draped  with  regimental  flags  and 
color  standards,  while  the  Concordia  Band  added 
to  the  effervescing  enthusiasm  with  its  excellent 
music.  It  was  a  matter  of  common  remark  that 
in  numbers,  unanimity  and  general  good  feeling, 
the  Convention  exceeded  any  ever  convened  in 
the  Capital,  and  one  from  which  the  highest  hopes 
can  be  drawn  for  the  victory  to  be  won  at  the  polls 
in  October  and  November  next. 

The  Convention  met  at  ten  o'clock  promptly 
and  was  called  to  order  by  Jacob  T.  Wright 
Chairman  of  the  State  Central  Committee. 

As  the  first  business,  he  announced  the  choice 
of  a  temporary  President,  and  for  that  position 
nominated  Gen.  T.  M.  Browne,  of  Randolph,  who 
was  unanimously  elected. 

Upon  taking  the  Chair,  the  General  thanked  the 
Convention  for  the  honor,  saying  that  it  was 
enough  to  fill  the  measure  of  an  ordinary  man's 
ambition  to  be  called  to  preside,  even  temporarily 
over  so  large  and  intelligent  an  assemblage  of  his 
fellow  citizens.  He  was  reminded,  however  that 
the  assembly  was  for  business,  not  speech-making, 
and  he  would  not  detain  their  attention  longer 
The  General  was  greeted  with  cheers,  both  before 
and  after  his  remarks. 

Upon  motion  of  Hon.  Will  Cumback,  Mr. 
Charles  P.  Jacobs,  of  Marion,  was  appointed  tem- 
porary Secretary,  and  upon  further  motion,  0.  M, 
Wilson,  of  Marion;  O.  Hartman,  of  Allen;  Major 
John  H.  Popp,  of  Wayne,  and  Henry  Jordan,  of 
Harrison  were  made  assisstants. 

The  Chairman  announced  that  letters  had  been 


received  from  several  members  of  the  Congres- 
sional delegation  of  the  State,  and  if  it  was  the 
pleasure  of  the  Convention,  a  letter  would  be  read 
from  Hon.  Schuyler  Colfax,  Speaker  of  the  House 
of  Representatives. 

Mr.  James  N.  Tyner  then  read  the  following: 

MR.  COLFAX'S  LETTER. 

Washington,  D.  C,  February  15,  1868. 
His  Excellency,  Governor  Baker  : 

My  Dear  Sir: — I  should  bo  glad  to  accept  your 
kind  invitation,  and  thus  enjoy  the  privilege  of  look- 
ing into  the  faces  of  the  representative  men  of  our  or- 
ganization in  Indiana  when  they  come  together  next 
Thursday  in  their  biennial  convocation,  but  the  rules 
of  the  House  do  not  allow  its  presiding  officer  to  be 
absent  during  its  sessions,  and  I  must,  therefore  deny 
myself  this  great  pleasure. 

It  may  not  be  inappropriate  on  the  threshold  of 
the  important  campaign  before  us,  to  look  back  for  a 
few  minutes  at  those  deeds  and  triumphs  of  our  young 
and  patriotic  party  which  are  garnered  up  in  our 
national  history,  and  which  no  defamation  by  our  ene- 
mies can  ignore  or  obscure.  When  the  rebellion,  with 
its  Democratic  President,  Democratic  Cabinet  officers 
and  Democratic  General  threw  down  the  gauntlet  at 
the  feet  of  the  nation  they  bad  resolved  to  destroy, 
and  when  the  Democratic  leaders  of  the  North,  in 
reply,  shouted  "  no  coercion,"  it  was  the  Union  Re- 
publican party  that  wrote  on  its  banners,  "the  last 
man  and  the  last  dollar,  if  need  be,"  and  the  uncon- 
querable armies  which  their  Congressional  legislation 
called  to  the  field  finally  "coerced"  the  rebellion  into 
subjection. 

In  the  darkest  days  of  the  struggle,  when  we  were 
tauntingly  told  by  Democrats  "You  can't  conquer 
the  South,"  there  was  one  party  that  never  dispaired 
of  the  Republic  and  that  party  was  the  one  whose 
delegates  now  meet  at  our  State  Capital. 

When  unprecedented  and  onerous  taxation  became 
necessary  to  maintain  our  credit,  to  pay  and  supply 
our  heroic  soldiers,  and  to  keep  our  flag  flying  in  the 
field,  we  dared  to  defy  the  prejudice  which  every 
Democratic  speaker  and  editor  attempted  to  inflame 
against  the  burdens,  and  thus  daring  triumphed. 

When  conscription  laws  became  a  military  necessity 
to  fill  up  our  regiments,  decimated  again  and  again 
by  the  bullets  of  the  enemy  and  the  diseases  of  the 
camp,  the  seige  and  the  march,  and  when  the  country 
was  filled  with  Democratic  denunciations  of  these 
laws,  we  risked  prosperity,  victory  and  all  by  defend- 
ing them  as  bravely  as  our  veterans  defended  the 
country  in  the  field. 

When  Lincoln  at  last  struck  at  slavery  as  the 


M212668 


GAUteol  ftU  our  wo€$  as  wel1  as  '"ue  rig111,  arm  of  tue 
rebellion,  ?.nd  when  Democratic  orators  and  writers 
sti!l  moie  scandalously  ;md  persistently  calumniated 
us  as  having  converted  the  war  for  the  Union  into  an 
abolition  war  to  free  negroes,  we  fearlessly  allied  our 
cause  to  that  of  the  humble  and  the  helpless,  and 
Providence  rewarded  us  for  our  fidelity  by  th$t  bril- 
liant succession  of  triumph  which  g$ve  salvation  to 
the  Union  as  well  as  freedom  to  the  slave. 

"When  the  National  Convention  of  our  opponents 
at  Chicago  dared  to  hang  out  the  white  flag  of  sur- 
render, by  proclaiming  the  war  a  failure,  and  de- 
manding an  immediate  cessation  of  hostilities,  we 
promptly  accepted  the  issue;  and  the  soldier  with 
his  cartridge  box,  and  the  nation  with  the  ballot  box, 
united  in  stamping  their  indignant  condemnation  on 
the  disgraceful  avowal. 

"When  the  Government  was  compelled  to  issue 
bonds  by  the  hundreds  of  millions  for  the  preser- 
vation of  our  national  existence,  Democrats  ridi- 
culed them  as  worthless,  and  cautioned  the  people 
against  risking  their  means  in  them ;  but  the  loyal 
people  were  deaf  to  their  warnings,  and  now  the 
game  party  denounce  them  as  having  made  too  good 
an  investment  in  their  purchase. 

When  "greenbacks,  were  authorized  by  a  Eepublcan 
Congress,  who  can  forget  the  Democratic  predictions 
that  it  would  ultimately  take  a  hat  full  of  them  to 
buy  a  hat?  And  now  they  have  the  assurance  to 
seek  to  make  political  capital  out  of  their  popularity. 

When  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress  rejected  the 
President's  policy  of  reconstruction  and  insisted  on 
one  which  should  embody  Constitutional  guaran- 
tees for  the  future,  with  full  protection  for  all  who 
Jove  the  flag  and  the  Union,  our  enemies  denounced 
us  as  wishing  to  postpone  reconstruction  ;  while  now 
the  same  Democrats  with  their  ally,  the  President, 
are  striving  to  put  every  possible  stumbling-block  in 
the  way  of  their  return. 

When  the  "14th  Article"'  was  proposed  as  an 
amendment  to  the  Constitution,  embodying  no  man- 
datory suffrage  enactment,  but  protecting  equally 
the  civil  rights  of  all,  native-born  and  naturalized, 
making  a  voter  in  Indiana  just  as  potential  as  one  in 
South  Carolina  and  no  more,  barring  the  door  of  the 
Treasury  against  any  payments  on  account  of  the 
rebel  debt  or  the  emancipation  of  slaves,  the  whole 
Democratic  party  denounced  it  and  urged  the  Southern 
rebels  to  spwrn  it  as  they  did.  Now,  the  two  Demo- 
cratic States  of  Kentucky  and  Maryland,  demand 
payment  out  of  the  peoples  taxes  in  the  Treasury  for 
the  slaves,  the  nation  emancipated ;  and  the  two 
Democratic  Legislatures  of  Ohio  and  New  Jersey  en-, 
deavor  to  withdraw  the  assent  of  those  States  to  this 
beneficent  Constitutional  Amendment,  leaving  the 
door  open  for  the  presentation  of  these  Democratic 
claims,  if  a  Democratic  Congress  could  be  chosen. 

I  will  not  extend  this  letter  by  a  defence  of  the 
Congressional  policy  of  reconstruction,  for  Senator 
Morton's  able  vindication  of  it  has  covered  the  whole 
ground  unanswerably.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  Congress, 
having  authorized  the  suffrage  of  every  freeman  in 
the  late  rebel  States,  rebels  and  all,  except  those  who, 
by  violating  official  oaths,  had  added  perjury  to  trea- 
son, and  the  Democratic  party  having  denounced  us 
for  thi3  limited  and  temporary  disfranchisement,  the 
same  party  shouts  its  rejoicings  over  the  fact  that  the 
remainder  of  the  un repenting  rebels  in  Alabama  have 
reccntlv  and  voluntarily  disfranchised  themselves  in 
the  vain  attempt  to  prevent  the  reorganization  of 
that  State  on  a  loyal  basis. 

Nor  is  this  all.  The  President,  now  in  full  sym- 
pathy with  the  same  Democratic  party  whioh  opposed 
his  election — the  same  person  who,  as  *a  candidate, 
declared  that  treason  should  be   made  odious,  but 


who.  as  Chief  Magistrate,  is  the  hope  and  admiration 
of  every  one  why  still  loves  "the  lost  cause" — whose 
oath  binds  him  to  "take  care  that  the  laws  be  faith- 
fully executed,"  and  who  keeps  it  by  striking  down 
officer  after  officer  for  the  performance  of  his  duty — 
who  retains  in  office  and  under  salary  as  his  Attorney 
General,  (presiding  over  one  of  his  departments  which 
he  claims  in  his  anti  Stanton  message  to  the  Senate 
should  be  in  unison  with  the  President,)  a  gentleman 
who  sajs  publicly  that  he  will  not  appear  before  the 
court  to  defend  "the  laws"  from  hostile  attacks — stands 
at  last  self  convicted  before  the  country  as  having 
striven  to  induce  the  General  of  our  armies  to  defy  a 
law  he  did  not  himself  dare  to  resist.  Signally  failing 
in  this,  his  Democratic  supporters  write  now  in  bit- 
ter denunciataions  of  that  single-hearted  and  illustri- 
ous officer,  with  epithets  which  I  will  not  soil  these 
pages  by  repeating.  But  the  heart  of  the  country, 
always  generous  and  jast,  turns  towards  this  gallant 
and  slandered  commander  with  even  more  affec- 
tion than  before,  and  longs  for  the  hour,  when 
at  the  ballot  box,  the  people  will  vindicate  his 
fair  fame  from  these  malignant  aspersions  and  call 
him  to  that  seat  of  power  and  responsibility  which 
has  been  honored  by  the  Father  of  the  country 
which  our  greatest  soldier  saved.  And  the  Congress, 
to  whose  fidelity  and  inflexible  firmness  the  nation 
despite  the  criticism  of  friend  and  foe,  owes  the  pre- 
vention of  rebel  reconstruction  in  the  South,  will,  in- 
stead of  taking  any  backward  steps  "speak  to  the 
people  that  they  go  forward,"  until  every  star  on 
our  banner,  paled  though  they  may  have'  been  by 
treason,  shall  shine  with  that  brilliancy  which  only 
loyalty  insures. 

Yery  truly  yours, 

Schuyler  Colfax. 

After  the  reading  had  been  concluded,  and  the 
consequent  applause  had  subsided,  Mr.  Dwiggins, 
of  Jasper  county,  offered  a  resolution  indorsing 
Ulysses  S.  Grant  for  President,  and  Schulyer  Col- 
fax for  Vice-President.  The  motion  was  received 
with  the  wildest  cheers,  the  Convention  rising  to 
a  vote.  Music  was  loudly  called  for,  and  the  Chair- 
man saying  it  was  an  excellent  time  for  that 
article,  the  band  gave  "Hail  Columbia,"  where- 
upon the  business  of  the  Convention  proceeded. 

The  following  Commitiee  on  Permanent  Organ- 
ization was  announced : — 

First  District— Hon.  F.  W.  Cook,  of  Vanderburgh. 

Second  District — John  J.  Cummings,  of  Jackson. 

Third  District — Colonel  Simeon  Stansifer,  of  Bar- 
tholomew. 

Fourth  District— Hon.  W.  A.  Peelle,  of  Wayne. 

Fifth  District — A.  C-  StephensoD,  of  Putnam. 

Sixth  District — Hon.  John  G.  Crain,  of  Vigo. 

Seventh  District — Hon.  Joseph  Milligan,  of  Mont- 
gomery. 

Eighth  District — Daniel  R.  Barso,  of  Miami. 

Ninth  District — Gen.  Silas  Colgrove,  of  Randolph. 

Tenth  District — Hon.  George  Moon,  of  Kosciusko. 

Eloventh  District — M.  L.  Essex,  of  Fulton. 

The  Committee  immediately  retired. 

A  motion  prevailed  that  the  business  of  the 
Convention  be  proceeded  with  at  the  Hall,  after 
which  the  speaking  should  be  made  at  the  State 
House  Square,  a  stand  being  arranged  for  the  use 
of  the  speakers. 

The  following  Committee  were  appointed  upon 
resolutions : — 


FROM    THE    STATE   AT   LARGE. 

Hon.  Henry  S.  Lane,  of  Montgomery. 
Hon.  Robert  T.  Kercheval,  of  Spencer. 
Hon.  John  U.  Fetitt,  of  Wabash. 
Hon.  John  Reynolds,  of  St.  Joseph. 

DISTRICTS. 

First—  Col.  0.  M.  Allen,  of  Knox,  and  James  H. 
McNeeley,  of  Vanderburgh. 

Second — James  P.  Luse  of  Floyd,  and  T.  C.  Slaugh- 
ter, of  Harrison 

Third — General  Ira  G.  Grover,  of  Decatur,  and 
Hon.  Ralph  Hill,  of  Bartholomew. 

Fourth — S.  D.  Lyons,  of  Hancock,  and  John  Kib- 
bey,  of  Wayne. 

Fifth— John  L.  Ketcham,  of  Marion,  and  W.  W. 
Curry,  of  Hendricks.  , 

Sixth— Colonel  R.  W.  Thompson,  of  Vigo,  and 
Hon.  Paris  C.  Dunning,  of  Monroe. 

Seventh— Colonel  R.  P.  Dellart,  of  Tippecanoe,  and 
Joseph  Poole,  of  Fountain. 

Eighth— Stearns  Fisher,  of  Wabash,  and  James 
O'Brien,  of  Hamilton. 

Ninth — General  William  Grose,  of  Henry,  and 
Judge  John  Morris,  of  Allen. 

Tenth— Joseph  H.  Defrees,  of  Elkhart,  and  William 
M.  Clapp,  of  I^oble. 

Eleventh— Hon.  A.  Wolcott,  of  White,  and  John 
B.  Niles,  of  Laporte. 

A  motion  was  adopted  sending  all  resolutions 
referring  to  platform  to  the  Committee  without 
debate. 

Hon.  John  Hanna  introduced  a  motion  compli- 
menting Governor  Morton,  the  substance  of  which 
is  reported  in  the  adopted  platform. 

After  Mr.  Hanna  had  concluded  the  reading, 
Hon.  J.  D.  Conner,  from  Wabash,  wanted  to 
know  if  it  was  in  order  to  move  three  cheers  for 
the  distinguished  Senator.  That  being  decided 
always  in  order,  three  most  hearty  cheers  were 
given,  Mr-  Conner  in  the  lead. 

The  following  Committee  was  next  appointed 
to  select  electors  and  delegates  for  the  State  at 
large : — 

First  District — John  A.  Mann,  of  Posey. 

Second  District — Jesse  J.  Brown,  of  Floyd. 

Third  District — W.  H.  Bonner,  of  Decatur. 

Fourth  District — R.  M.  Haworth,  of  Union. 

Fifth  District — W.  R.  Harrison.,  of  Morgan. 

Sixth  District — Colonel  W.  K.  Edwards,  of  Vigo. 

Seventh  District — General  Lew  Wallace  of  Mont- 
gomery. 

Eighth  District — Harvey  Cravens,  of  Madison. 

Ninth  District — W.  A/Bonham,  of  Blackford. 

Tenth  District — Robert  Lockhart,  gf  DeKalb. 

Eleventh  District — J.  H.  Luther,  of  Lake. 

PERMANENT   ORGANIZATION. 

At  this  juncture  the  Committee  on  Permanent 
Organization  appeared  upon  the  platform,  and 
Judge  Peelle  presented  the  following  reported: 

FOR    PRESIDENT. 

Hon.  James  Hughes,  of  Monroe. 

VICE  PRESIDENTS. 

First  District — Thomas  Stevens,  of  Posey. 
Second  District— John  F.  Carr,  of  Jackson. 
Third  District— John  T.  Wilder,  of  Decatur. 
Fourth  District — Othniel  Boeson,  of  Wayne. 
Fifth  District  —P.  C.  Donahue,  of  Putnam. 


Sixth  District — Colonel  J.  P.  Baird,  of  Vigo. 
Seventh  District — General  R.  H.  Milroy,  of  Carroll. 
Eighth  District— Dr.  Walker,  of  Miami. 
Ninth   District — Colonel   Isaac  P.  Gray,  of  Ran- 
dolph. 

Tenth  District — James  Wooden,  of  Kosciusko. 
Eleventh  District — James  H.  Harper,  of  St.  Joseph. 

PERMANENT    SECRETARY. 


ASSISTANT   SECRETARIES. 

First  District — Robert  Hill,  of  Vanderburgh. 

Second  District — Colonel  Henry  Jordan,  of  Har- 
rison. 

Third — W.  F.  Herrod,  of  Bartholomew. 

Fourth  District — Ma]or  John  H.  Popp,  of  Wayne. 

Fifth  District — Charles  P.  Jacobs,  of  Marion, 

Sixth  District — U.  Coulson,  of  Sullivan. 

Seventh  District— Thomas  Underwood,  of  Tippe- 
canoe. 

Eighth  District— Col.  Thomas  H.  Bringhurst,  of 
Cass. 

Ninth  District — Carlton  Shipley,  of  Delaware. 

Tenth  District— J.  H.  Rarrick,  of  Lagrange. 

Eleventh  District — Major  Colkins,  of  Porter. 

Upon  taking  the  Chair  Judge  Hughes  said : 
Gentlemen  of  the  Convention: 

I  thank  you,  most  heartily  thank  you,  for  the  honor 
you  have  done  me  in  calling  me  to  preside  over  your 
deliberations,  and  as  you  have  decided  to  transact  all 
your  business  in  this  place,  and  have  already  well 
progressed  in  the  transaction  of  it,  I  deem  it  in  good 
taste  to  detain  you  with  no  remarks  at  present  further 
than  the  expression  of  my  thanks ;  and  the  assurance 
that,  with  your  good  help,  I  will  discharge  the  duties 
of  the  Chair  to  the  best  of  my  ability. 

PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTORS. 

The  Districts  were  ftien  called,  and  the  Presi- 
dential Electors  selected  by  each  delegation  an- 
nounced. 

DELEGATES    TO   THE   NATIONAL    CONVENTION. 

Upon  a  call  of  the  Districts,  the  following 
names  were  announced  as  delegates  to  the 
National  Presidential  Convention,  at  Chicago.  We 
give  the  names  of  the  delegates  at  large,  reported 
by  the  Committee  at  the  afternoon  session,  by  R. 
M.  Haworth,  of  Union  county. 

FOR   STATK   AT   LARGE. 

Hon.  R.  W.  Thompson,  of  Vigo. 
Hon.  Henry  S.  Lane,  of  Montgomery. 
Hon.  W.  A.  Peelle,  of  Wayne. 
General  Walter  Q.  Gresham,  of  Floyd. 

CONTINGENTS. 

Hon.  D.  C  Branham,  of  Jefferson. 

General  Silas  Colgrove,  of  Randolph. 

Hon.  Daniel  D.  Pratt,  of  Cass. 

Colonel  John  W.  Foster,  of  Vanderburgh. 

First  District— C.  M.  Allen,  of  Knox;  L.  Q.  DeBru- 
ler,  of  Spencer. 

Alternates— Dr.  A.  Lewis,  of  Gibson;  T.  C.  Ja- 
quess,  of  Posey. 

Second  District— Andrew  Caskin,  of  Floyd;  John 
C.  Albert,  of  Orange. 

Alternates— John  F.  Carr,  of  Jackson  ;  J.  B.  Mer- 
ri wether,  of  Clark. 

Third  District— John  G.  Berkshire,  of  Ripley ;  Col- 
onel A.  W.  Prather,  of  Bartholomew. 

Alternates— Colonel  Smith  Vawter,  of  Jennings  ; 
Captain  D.  G.  Rabb,  of  Ohio. 


Fourth  District— Richard  H.  Swift,  of  Franklin; 
Benjamin  F.  Olaypool,  of  Fayette. 

Alternates — Joseph  Livingston,  of  Shelby;  N.  H. 
Johnson,  of  Wayne.  * 

Fifth  District— Charles  F.  Hogate,  of  Hendricks ; 
William  M.  French,  of  Marion. 

Alternates — Ezra  Olleman,  of  Morgan  ;  G.  H.Voss 
of  Putnam. 

Sixth  District— George  K.  Steele,  of  Park  ;  George 
H.  Buskirk,  of  Monroe.*" 

Alternates— Colonel  John  P.  Baird,  of  Vigo;  Maj. 
H.  Woodsmall,  of  Owen. 

Seventh  District— Joseph  Odell,  of  Tippecanoe; 
James  H.  Paris,  of  Clinton. 

Alternates— Colonel  W.  J.  Templeton,  of  Benton  ; 
Robert  Fisher,  of  Carroll. 

Eighth  District— Hon.  John  Browalee,  of  Grant ; 
Hon.  J.  D.  Conner,  of  Wabash. 

Alternates— Judge  Green,  of  Tipton  ;  D.  H.  Ben 
nett,  of  Howard. 

Ninth  District— S.  T.  Powell  of  Henry;  John 
Hough,  of  Allen. 

Alternates— Colonel  II.  H.  JJoff,.of  Randolph;  J. 
W.  Haines,  of  Jay. 

Tenth  District— S.  P.  Williams,  of  Lagrange;  J. 
J.  AV.  Purviance,  of  Huntington. 

Alternates— D.  A  Dickenson,  of  DcKalb;  O.  H. 
Woodworth,  of  Whitley. 

Eleventh  District — Aaron  Gurney,  of  Porter;  C. 
G.  Powell,  of  Laporte. 

Alternates— Colonel  O.  H.  P.  Bailey,  of  Marshall; 
W.  H.  Butterworth,  of  St.  Joseph, 

STATE  CENTRAL  COMMITTEE. 

The  following  members  of  the  State  Central 
Committee  were  then  announced: — 

First  District— Colonel  J.  W.  Foster,  Vander- 
burgh. 

Second  District — General  W.  Q.  Gresham,  Floyd. 

Third  District — General  Ira  G.  Grover,  Decatur. 

Fourth  District — Judge  W.  A.  Cullen,  Rush. 

Fifth  District— Hon.  A.  H.  Conner,  Marion. 

Sixth  District — General  Charles  Cruft,  Vigo. 

Seventh  District — Col.  G.  O.  Behm,  Tippecanoe. 

Eighth  District— Colonel  N.  P.  Richmond,  Howard. 

Ninth  District— John  AV.  Burson,  Delaware. 

Tenth  District— John  A.  Mitchell,  Noble. 

Eleventh  District— Col.  Alfred  Reed,  White. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Committee,  held  at  room 
No.  105  Bates  House,  during  the  day,  Hon.  A. 
H.  Conner  was  selected  as  Chairman. 

NOMINATIONS. 

Before  the  announcement  of  the  Central  Com- 
mittee, Hon.  John  Hanna  moved  that  Conrad 
Baker  be  declared  by  acclamation  the  choice  of 
the  Union  party  for  Governor,  which  was  agreed 
to  with  great  enthusiasm. 

Hon.  John  Hanna,  General  E.  Dumont,  and 
Hon.  Isaac  Jenkinson  were  appointed  by  the  Chair 
to  announce  to  Governor  Baker  the  fact  of  his 
nomination,  and  to  learn  at  what  hour  it  would 
be  his  pleasure  to  communicate  with  the  Conven- 
tion. 

After  this  nomination  had  been  made,  an  inef- 
fectual attempt  was  made  to  postpone  the  re- 
mainder of  the  nominations  of  the  ticket  until 
afternoon,  but  a  motion  from  General  Bennett  to 


piocede  with  the  ticket,  in  the  order  as  ]MtbUshed 
in  the  Journal  of  yesterday,  very  largely  pre- 
vailed. 

LI  KU'I ENANT    GOVERNOR. 

For  this  office  the  names  of  Hon.  Will  Cum- 
back,  Hon.  W.  C.  Wilson  and  Hon.  Isaac  Jenkin- 
son were  presented.  Before  the  call  was  com- 
menced,  Judge  Huff,  in  a  few  well  chosen  words, 
withdrew  the  name  of  Col.  Wilson,  and  the  ballot 
was  had  with  the  fallowing  result: 

Whole  number  of  votes  cast  1,G86  :  necessary  to  a 
choice  844.     Of  these 

Mr.  Cumback  received i,2Sl 

Mr.  Jenkinson  received 405 

Before  the  result,  was  announced,  Mr.  Jenkin- 
son moved  that  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Cumback 
be  made,  unanimous,  which  was  agreed  to.  In 
answer  to  a  call  the  nominee  addressed  the  con- 
vention as  follows : 

Gentlemen  of  the  Convention: 

It  is  no  part  of  my  intention  to  interrupt  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Convention  by  a  speech.  [  am  per- 
suaded that  the  time  will  never  come  when  tiao  public 
mind  will  be  so  benighted  or  the  national  heart  s© 
corrupt  or  wicked  as  to  allow  the  Democratic  party 
to  come  into  power.  The  reasons  for  this  faith  that 
is  within  me  I  propose  to  give  you  in  your  several 
counties  during  the  coming  campaign.  I  have  not 
desired  nor  sought  the  nomination,  but  I  accept  it 
thankfully  at  your  hands  and  will  go  into  this  can- 
vass with  all  my  heart. 

When  the  applause  elicited  by  Mr.  Cumback' s 
remarks  had  subsided,  Mr.  Jenkinson  was  loudly 
called  for,  in  obedience    to   which,  in   excellent 
taste,  he  said : 
Gentleman  of  the  Convention  : 

I  do  not  respond  to  the  call  for  the  purpose  of 
making  a  speech  ,  but  I  will  simply  say  to  the  friends 
who  have  voted  for  me  that  I  am  sincerely  thankful 
for  the  honor  they  have  conferred  upon  me ;  and  I 
will  say  further,  that  no  one  is  more  heartly  grati- 
fied at  the  nomination  of  Hon.  Will  Cumback  for  the 
office  of  Lieutenant  Governor  than  myself;  nor 
shall  any  man  in  the  State  of  Indiana  do  more,  so  far 
as  lies  in  my  power,  to  secure  his  success. 

This,  I  think,  is  about  all  you  expect  or  desire  of 
me.  I  will  simply  say  that  while  I  have  permitted 
my  name  to  be  used  in  connection  with  the  nomina- 
tion, there  has  not  been,  nor  will  there  ever  be,  any 
contest  between  Mr.  Cumback  and  myself.  We 
have  always  been  friends,  and  will  always  continue 
to  be  so. 

FOR    SECRETARY    OF    STATE. 

For  this  office  the  names  of  Max  F.  A.  Iloii- 
man,  of  Cass,  Colonel  Kline  G.  Shryock,  of  Fulton, 
S.  F.  Messner,  of  Warren,  and  General  John  1/ 
Mansfield,  of  Marion,  were  presented.  Before 
the  ballot  had  concluded,  Colonel  Shryock,  the 
principal  candidate  against  the  successful  nomi- 
nee, moved  that  the  choice  of  Mr.  Hoffman  be 
made  unanimous,  which  was  agreed  to  Mr 
Hoffman  was  loudly  call  for,  but  was  not  present1 


FOR   TREASURER   OF   STATE.  » 

There  being  no  opposition  to  General  Nathan 
Kimball,  the  present  incumbent,  for  the  position 
of  Treasurer  of  State,  upon  motion  he  was.  nomi- 
ated  by  acclamation,  amid  an  enthusiasm  we  have 
scarcely  ever  seen  equalled,  and  never  certainly 
excelled.  The  hero  of  Winchester,  in  obedience, 
not  to  the  call,  but  to  the  vehement  demand,  of 
the  Convention,  appeared  upon  the  platform,  and 
accepted  the  nomination  so  generously  tendered, 
in  the  following  characteristic  speech  : 
Gentlemen  of  the  Convention  : 

I  am  so  overcome  that  I  can  hardly  talk  at  all.  I 
need  not  tell  you  that  I  am  truly  thankful  to  every 
man  of  you,  and  to  the  constituency  whom  you  repre- 
sent, for  the  honor  conferred  upon  me,  and  for  the 
approval  of  my  past  course  involved  in  it.  I  pledge 
you  now,  as  I  did  in  1861,  that  as  long  as  there  is  a 
rebel  to  fight  or  a  copperhead  to  conquer  I  am  with 
you;  and  I  want  every  man,  who  is  willing,  to  go 
with  me,  to  say  that  we  will  follow  "Old  Honesty'' 
Baker,  and  this  man  Cumback  to  victory.  That  is  all 
I  have  t®  say,  and  I  am  ready  to  go  to  work. 

FOR   AUDITOR   OF   STATE. 

For  the  office  of  Auditor,  the  names  of  John  D. 
Evans,  Eden   H.   Fisher,    R.    N.    Lamb,   Albert 
Lange,  A.  J.  Iiawhe,  R.  W.  Grubbs,  C.  B.  Oakley, 
and  E.  W.  H.  Ellis,  were  presented. 
The  first  ballot  resulted  as  follows  ; 

Evans »* 

Fisher ™H 

Oakley f 

Ellis n*f* 

Hawhe *0l 

^nge 92 

Lamb 241 

Grubbs 14° 

There  being  no  nomination,  another  ballot  was 
.  about  to  be  proceeded  with,  when  Governor  Baker 
came  upon  the  platform,  and  was  introduced  to 
the  convention.  He  was  received  with  every 
manifestation  of  applause,  and  after  order  had 
been  restored,  made  the  following  remarks : 
Gentlemen  of  the  Convention: 

I  thank  you  for  this  cordial  greeting.  I  thank  you 
for  the  honor  of  the  nomination  you  have  made.  It 
has  been  your  work  to  make  the  nomination ;  it  will 
be  mine  to  justify  the  nomination  you  have  made.  I 
have  not  thought  it  proper  to  solicit  a  single  man  to 
vote  for  my  nomination.  I  thought  the  people  knew 
their  own  business,  and  would  do  it  in  their  own  way, 
subject  always  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  and  whatever  the  poople  did  do,  I  was  determ- 
ied  to  be  satisfied  with. 

But  I  must  tell  you  that,  as  I  understand,  there 
have  been  some  apprehensions  that  I  wouldnot  be 
able  to  take  care  of  myself  during  the  campaign.  I 
am  the  last  man,  let  me  assure  you,  to  overestimate 
my  own  ability,  or  to  underestimate  that  of  my 
antagonist;  but  I  intend  to  take  care  of  myself 
throughout  this  entire  canvass.  I  have  never  been 
any  expense  to  the  Republican  party  yet,  and  am  not 
going  to  be  now .  But  I  will  say  to  you  that  all  the 
Republicans  slain  by  the  Democratic  logic  in  this  can- 
vass, I  will  be  at  the  expense  of  their  burial  myself. 
What  is  the  reason  that   Thomas    A.   Hendricks 


should 


sleeted  Governor  of  Indiana  now,  any  more 


than  heretofore — any  more  than  in  1860,  when  he  t 
was  a  candidate.  Then  he  was  defeated.  And,  let 
me  ask  you,  is  there  a  single  Kepublican  here  to-day 
who  has  not  again  and  again  thanked  God  that  he 
was  defeated  ?  What  has  he  done  since  that  he  ought 
now  to  be  elected  Governor  of  Indiana?  During  the 
great  contest  in  which  we  were  engaged  for  four 
years,  what  has  he  done  to  entitle  him  to  the  suffra- 
ges of  a  single  Republican  in  Indiana?  If  I  get  all 
the  Republican  votes  in  Indiana,  I  will  be  your  Gov- 
ernor "just  as  sure  as  shooting." 

I  came  here  not  to  make  you  a  speech,  but  to  read 
you  an  argument;  and,  in  doing  that,  ^shall  imitate 
the  example  of  my  illustrious  competitor  on  this  one 
ocaasion  only— hereafter  I  shall  not  appear  before  the 
people  with  manuscript.  To-day  I  shall  make  an 
argument,  rather  than  deliver  a  speech,  and  ask  your 
patient  and  earnest  attention  while  I  do  so. 

Governor  Baker  proceeded  for  a  few  minutes  in 
reading  his  able  and  unanswerable  argument? 
published  at  another  place  in  these  proceedings, 
but  the  dinner  hour  arriving,  he  kindly  gave  way 
for  adjournment,  which  was  effected  at  12:45  to  2 
o'clock,  P.  M. 

AFTERNOON  SESSION. 

Order  was  secured  at  the  hour  to  which  the 
Convention  had  adjourned.  Judge  Hughes  stated 
that  Governor  Baker  proposed,  if  the  members 
pleased,  to  defer  his  address  until  after  the  con- 
clusion of  the  business.  This  being  agreed  to,  the 
balloting  for  Auditor  of  State  continued.  The 
names  of  Albert  Lange  And  C.  B.  Oakley  were 
withdrawn.     The  second  ballot  resulted  :— 

Whole  number  of  votes  cast 1686 

Necessary  to  a  choice 

Of  these— 

Maj.  Evans  received ^2 

Capt.  Fisher  received b-'b 

Before  the  balance  of  the  ballot  was  announced, 
the  nomination  of  Major  Evans  was  made  unan- 
imous, and  in  answer  to  a  call,  appeared  upon  the 
platform,  briefly  thanking  the  Convention  for  the 
honor,  saying  he  was  gratified  clear  down  in  his- 
boots.  He  expected  to  visit  every  county  and 
hamlet  in  the  State,  and  it  would  be  his  religion 
to  defeat  the  treasonable  Democracy. 

CLERK  OF  THE  SUPREME  COURT. 

For  the  position  of  Clerk  of  the  Supreme  Court 
the  names  of  Captain  T.  W.  MeCoy,  D;  I.  Jack- 
son and  General  Laz.  Noble  were  presented.     The 

first  ballot  resulted : 

A,  n  1002 

McCoy- 

Jackson '-.—  -  *„. 

Noble -—  61S 

McCoy  having  received  a  majority  of  the  votes 
cast,  was  declared  the  nominee,  and  upon  motion 
the  nomination  was  made  unanimous.  Capt,  Mc- 
Coy appeared  and  addressed  the  Convention  as 
follows : 


8 


Republicans  of  Indiana : 

Coming  from  the  old  Second  District  where  \ye  are 
overburdened — overpowered  by  a  rebel  majority  of 
forty-four  hundred,  this  is  indeed  a  compliment  from 
the  Republican  party  in  this  great  State  that  one 
should  be  selected  from  that  district  and  placed  upon 
the  State  ticket.  We  have  been  in  the  habit,  down 
in  our  district,  of  meeting  the  enemy  face  to  face  and 
of  contesting  the  ground  with  them  inch  by  inch ; 
and  until  the  late  change  in  the  apportionment  we 
had  some  prospect  of  breaking  down  their  majority  en- 
tirely, having  already  reduced  it  from  the  thousands 
to  seventeen  hundred.  But  we  have  had  in  the  late 
apportionment,  a  precious  gift  imposed  upon  us  in 
the  shape  of  the  counties  of  Martin,  Dubois  and 
Jackson;  yet  we  are  nothing  daunted.  "We  will  en- 
ter into  the  contest  with  as  much  zeal  and  energy  as 
ever,  and  not  one  Republican  vote  polled  there  at  the 
election  of  1866  will  be  lost  from  the  party  in  1868. 
Again  I  thank  you  for  the  honor  you  have  conferred 
upon  me,  and  the  compliment  you  have  paid  to  our 
district.  I  shall  work  untiringly  from  to-day  until 
the  day  of  the  election  in  October. 

REPORTER  OF  THE  SUPREME  COURT. 

For  the  position  of  Reporter  the  names  of 
Henry  M.  Scott,  Charles  P.  Jacobs,  John  A.  Finch) 
John  W.  Ray,  B.  W.  Langdon,  James  B.  Black, 
P.  S.  Kennedy,  Colonel  Gilbert  A.  Pierce,  and 
Edwin  A.  Davis  were  presented.  The  first  ballot 
resulted : 

Scott 29 

Jacobs 135 

Finch 35 

Ray w 129 

Langdon : 197 

Black ,.___ 933 

Kennedy _• 127 

Pierce : 44 

Davis 55 

Baldwin 1 

Phillips ____,____!__       1 

Before  the  ballot  was  announced.  Major  Scott 
and  Mr.  Finch  withdrew  in  favor  of  Colonel  Black. 
The  name  of  Colonel  Pierce  was  also  withdrawn- 
These  figures  do  not  give  anything  like  the  exact 
strength  of  each  candidate  upon  the  first  call,  on 
account  of  the  withdrawals  mentioned,  and  the 
consequent  changes.  This  is  the  result  as  an- 
nounced by  the  chair :  Colonel  Black  having  re- 
ceived a  majority  of  the  entire  vote,  was  declared 
nominated,  the  vote  being  made  unanimous.  He 
accepted  the  nomination  in  the  following  words: 
Gentlemen  of  the  Convention:  : 

I  thank  you,  the  representatives  of  the  groat  Re- 
publican party  of  Indiana,' for  this  honor,  "most  sin- 
cerely. 1  hail  from  the  county  of  Marion,  who  casts 
her  six  thousand  votes  for  the  Republican  party,  and 
at  the  next  election  we  expect  to  cast  fully  that  num- 
ber, or  more.  We  do  not  expect  to  abate  in  the  least 
our  uniform  zeal  for  the  cause  of  Republicanism  and 
of  our  common  country.  I  think  this  is  all  that  it  Is 
necessary  for  me  to  say  on  this  occasion. 

ATTORNEY   GENERAL, 

For  Attorney  General,  Walter  March,  Leonidas 
Sexton,  Delane  E.  Williamson,  and  iron.  D.  D. 
Pratt  were  presented. 


Colonel  Thomas  H.  Bringhurst  said  the  an- 
noucement  of  Mr.  Pratt's  name  was  utterly  with- 
out his  consent,  and  he  withdrew  it  from  the  con- 
sideration of  the  Convention.  Before  the  ballot 
commenced,  a  rule  was  adopted,  that  the  lowest 
name  should  be  dropped  at  each  successive  vote. 

The  first  ballot  resulted  as  follows : 

March 503 

Sexton 477   t 

Williamson ^ 688 

Pratt 29 

The  Chair  stated  under  the  rule  adopted,  the 
name  of  Mr.  Pratt  should  be  dropped,  that  he  did 
not  regard  it  within  his  authority  to  say  that  gen- 
tlemen s'hould  not  vote  for  Mr.  Pratt  or  any- 
body else,  notwithstanding  the  rule.  Hence  the 
Convention  proceeded  to  a  new  ballot  without 
dropping  any  one. 

There  being  no  choice,  a  second  ballot  was  had. 
with  the  following  result : 

Sexton 352 

March ' ' 602 

Williamson 720 

There  still  being  no  nomination,  the  name  of 
Mr.  Sexton  was  dropped,  and  the  vote  on  a  third 
was  taken,  which  resulted  : 

Williamson 843 

March. 828 

Mr.  Williamson,  having  received  a  majority  of 
the  votes,  was  declared  the  nominee,  the  choice 
being  unanimously  ratified.  Being  called  upon 
to  respond,  he  arose  in  the  back  part  of  the  hall 
and  said : 
Gentlemen  of  the  Convention: 

Permit  me  to  say  that  you  have  my  warm  and 
heartfelt  thanks  for  this  renewal  of  your  confidence. 
It  is  not  proper  on  this  occasion,  and  under  these  cir- 
cumstances, to  address  you  at  any  length.  I  will  only 
detain  you  long  enough  to  promise  you,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  .declarations  that  have  already  been 
made  by  other  gentlemen  from  the  stand,  that  I,  too, 
will  be  found  in  the  midst  of  the  fray  when  the  bat- 
tle comes  on. 

SUPERINTENDENT   OF    PUBLIC   INSTRUCTION. 

For  this  office  the  names  of  J.  M.  Olcott,  B.  C. 
Hobbs,  B.  E.  Rhodes,  A.  C.  Shortridge,  Professor 
Knapp,  of  Fort  Wayne,  and  Professor  Carleton, 
were  presented.  Mr. Carleton  withdrew  his  name 
immediately  after  it  was  announced.  The  Allen 
county  delegation  withdrew  Mr.  Knapp's  name. 
The  first  ballot  resulted  : 

Olcott 673 

Hobbs 725 

Rhoades 29 

Shortridge j 258 

There  being  no  choice,  a  second  ballot  was  or- 
dered. The  Marion  county  delegation  withdrew 
the  name  of  Professor  A.  C.  Shortridge.  The  re- 
sult was  as  follows : 


Hobbs 889 

Olcott t-_ , 796 

On  motion  of  Professor  Olcott,  the  nomination 
of  Mr.  Iiobbs  was  made,  unanimous.  That  gen- 
tleman came  forward,  in  answer  to  repeated  calls, 
and  after  laying  aside  his  overcoat  with  an  air 
decidedly  suggestive  of  work,  made  the  following 
'  remarks : 
Fellow  Citizens  of  My  Native  Store  : 

It  affords  me  no  little  emotion  to  appear  before  yon 
under  the  circumstances  in  which  I  am  now  placed. 
I  have  often  wondered  why  the  name  of  the  Super- 
intendent of  Public  Instruction  should  come  last  on 
your  ticket;  but  perhaps  the  interpretation  of  the 
matter  may  be  that  you  want  the  dessert  at  the  last. 

I  have  watched  the  progress  of  the  action  of  the 
Convention  with  deep  interest.  At  one  end  yon 
have  one  of  the  best  Bakers  in  the  State,  and  at  the 
other  end  you  have  somebody  to  take  care  of  your 
children  ;  and  I  cannot  think  of  a  State  placed  under 
circumstances  more  favorable  for  complete  happiness 
for  the  future. 

There  is  something  peculiarly  interesting  to  my- 
self in  the  circumstances  in  which  I  am  placed  on  the 
present  occasion.  You  know,  perhaps,  the  most'  of 
you,  something  about  the  manner  in  which  the  news- 
papers, some  of  them,  have  spgken  of  me  within  the 
last  few  weeks — the  manner  in  which  my  name  Jias 
been  used.  I  represent  a  class  of  people  who  consti- 
tute an  element  in  the  great  thinking  material  of  the 
Union  or  Republican  party  of  Indiana,  but  that  has 
never  been  before  the  people  of  Indiana,  to  any  great 
extent,  in  connection  with  any  civil  office,  and  whose 
principles,  political  and  religious,  have  never  been 
before  the  country  for  discussion.  Therefore,  it  is 
not  a  matter  of  surprise  that  many  should  have 
serious  doubts  as  to  the  policy  of  nominating  a  man 
who  never  was  a  candidate  for  any  office  before. 

In  exhoneration  of  myself,  in  asking  any  one  to 
vote  for  me,  I  must  say  that  I  do  not  come  as  a  volun- 
teer, but  that  I  have  been  drafted  into  the  service. 
As  I  look  over  the  ticket  formed  here  to-day,  I-  see 
there  all  the  Republican  elements  that  blend  them- 
selves in  the  Constitutions  of  the  United  States  and 
the  State  of  Indiana— which  make  up  all  that  class  of 
sentiment  that  is  bound  together  and  dove-tailed  in 
our  political,  civil  and  religious  institutions;  that 
make  us  one  great,  common  people.  Some  persons 
have  been  fearful  to  see  me  nominated,  because  they 
thought  it  might  embarrass  your  ticket,  because  of 
the  past  record  of  my  people.  They  have  feared  lest 
I  might  stand  a  little  in  the  way  of  some  of  those 
eloquent  speeches  that  some  of  you  expect  to  make 
between  now  and  the  election.  I  have  only  to  say  to 
you,  however,  that  you  have  only  to  look  into  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  State  of  Indiana,  and  you  will  find  there 
all  the  elements  that  you  need  in  order  to  make  a 
complete  and  solid  argument  in  every  speech  you 
make  in  the  coming  campaign.  If  this  be  not  so,  then 
yon  are  in  the  like  situation  with  a  prominent  Demo- 
crat candidate  in  Ohio  who  was  called  to  account  be- 
cause he  did  not  make  better  speeches.  "  O,"  said  he, 
"  I  would  make  better  speeches  if  I  had  the  other 
side  of  the  subject." 

The  question  has  been  raised  among  you  as  to 
whether  a  member  of  the  Society  of  "Friends  can 
stand  vindicated  before  the  country  and  the  Societ}'- 
and  cast  his  vote  for  General  Grant.  Let  me  tell 
you,  if  you  feel  thus,  what  our  position  is  in  regard 
to  this  matter.  When  we  employ  a  man  to  do  a  piece 
of  work,  we  want  the  work  done  and  we  do  not  stop 


and  go  back  to  the  inquiry  whether  his  views  agree 
with  ours  or  not — we  simply  employ  him  to  do  a  job 
of  work  for  us ;  and  when  we  find  a  man  like  Grant, 
who  can  do  what  we  want  done,  we  take  him,  because 
we  believe  he  will  carry  out  the  duties  of  the  Presi- 
dency of  the  United  States— stand  by  Congress  in 
maintaining  the  integrity  of  the  Government.  We 
take  him  for  that  reason,  and  not  because  of  any 
other  peculiar  views  he  may  hold  or  any  other  quali- 
ties he  may  possess. 

I  want  you  to  understand  why  I  propose  to  go  into 
this  canvass  as  I  do.  The  best  educators  of  this 
country  are  now  looking  upon  this  office  with  a  feel- 
ing that  he  who  fills  the  office  shall  be  so  situated  be- 
fore the  minds  of  the  whole  people  that  after  ho  is 
elected  a  large  proportion  of  the  people  shall  feel 
that  there  is  no  opening  for  business  among  them. 
Let  them  feel  that  the  duty  to  be  discharged  is  to 
work.  I  want  to  go  into  some  of  these  Democratic 
communities  and  teach  their  children^ 

At  the  conclusion  of  Mr.  Hobbs'  address  three 
cheers  were  proposed  for  the  ticket,  which  were 
given  with  a  hearty  good  will,  aided,  by  an  excel- 
lent strain  by  the  band. 

THE     PLATFORM. 

The  nomination  being  concluded,  the  Commit- 
tee on  Platform  reported  by  the  Chairman;  Hon, 
It.  W.  Thompson  reading  the  resolutions. 

The  Union  Republican  party  of  Indiana,  assem- 
bled in  Convention  at  Indianapolis,  on  the  20th  day 
of  February,  1868,  to  consult  in  reference  to  the  pres- 
ent condition  of  the  country,  make  the  following  dec- 
laration of  principles  : 

First.  Tho  Congressional  plan  of  reconstruction 
was  made  necessary  by  the  rejection  of  the  Constitu- 
tional Amendment  and  the  continued  rebellious  spirit 
of  the  Southern  people,  and  if  they  will  not,  upon 
the  conditions  prescribed  by  Congress,  become  tho 
friends  of  the  Union,  it  is  the  duty  of  Congress  to  do 
whatever  the  emergency  requires  to  prevent  them 
from  doing  harm  as  enemies. 

Second.  The  extension  of  suffrage  to  the  negroes  of 
the  South  is  the  direct  result  of  the  rebellion  and  the 
continued  rebellious  spirit  maintained  therein,  and 
was  necessary  to  secure  the  reconstruction  of  the 
Union  and  the  preservation  of  the  loyal  men  therein 
from  a  state  worse  than  slavery,  and  the  question  of 
suffrage  in  all  the  loyal  States  belongs  to  the  people 
of  those  States  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States. 

Third.  The  Government  of  the  United  States 
should  be  administered  with  the  strictest  economy 
consistently  with  the  public  safety  and  interest.  Rev- 
enue should  be  so  laid  as  to  give  the  greatest  possible 
exemption  to  articles  of  primary  necessity  and  fall 
most  heavily  upon  luxuries  and  the  wealth  of  the 
country,  and  all  property  should  bear  a  just  propor- 
tion of  the  burden  of  taxation. 

Fourth.  The  public  debt  made  necessary  by  the  re- 
bellion should  be  honestly  paid ;  and  all  the  bonds 
issued  therefor  should  be  paid  in  legal  tenders,  oom- 
monly  called  greenbacks,  except  where,  by  their  ex- 
press terms,  they  provide  otherwise;  and  paid  in  such 
quantities  as  will  make  the  circulation  commensurate 
with  the  commercial  wrants  of  the  country,  and  so  as 
to  avoid  too  gr*eat  inflation  of  the  currency,  and  an 
increase  in  the  price  of  gold. 

Fifth.  The  large  and  rapid  contraction  of  the  cur- 
rency, sanctioned  by  the  votes  of  the  Democratic 
party  in  both  Houses  of  Congress,  has  had  a  most  in- 
jurious effect  upon  the  industry  and  business  of  the 
country:  and  it  is  the  duty  of  Congress  to  provide 


10 


"by  law  for  supplying  the  deficiency  in  legal  tender 
notes,  commonly  called  greenbacks,  to  the  full  extent 
required  by  the  business  wants  of  the  country. 

Sixth.  We  are  opposed  to  the  payment  of  any 
part  of  the  rebel  debt,  or  to  any  payment  whatever 
for  emancipated  slaves. 

Seventh.  Of  all  who  were  faithful  in  the  trials  of 
the  late  wa*r,  there  are  none  entitled  to  more  especial 
honor  than  the  brave  soldiers  and  seamen,  who 
endured  the  hardships  of  campaign  and  cruise,  and 
imperilled  their  lives  in  the  service  of  their  country: 
the  bounties  and  pensions  provided  by  law  for  those 
brave  defenders  of  the  nation  are  obligations  never 
to  be  forgotten:  the  widows  and  orphans  of  the  gal- 
lant dead  are  the  wards  of  the  nation — a  sacred 
legacy  bequeathed  to  the  nation's  protecting  care. 

Eighth.  The  public  lands  are  the  property  of  the 
people  ;  monopolies  of  them,  either  by  individuals  or 
corporations,  should  be  prohibited  ;  'they  should  be 
reserved  for  actual  settlers ;  and  as  a  substantial  re- 
cognition of  the  services  of  the  Union  officers  and 
soldiers  in  the  late  civil  war,  they  should  each  be 
allowed  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  thereof. 

Ninth.  The  doctrine  of  Great  Britain  and  other 
European  powers,  that  because  a  man  is  once  a  citi- 
zen he  is  always  so,  must  be  resisted  at  every  hazard 
by  the  United  States,  as  a  relic  of  the  feudal  times, 
not  authorized  by  the  law  of  nations,  and  at  war  with 
our  national  honor  and  independence.  Naturalized 
citizens  are  entitled  to  be  protected  in  all  their  rights 
of  citizenship  as  though  they  were  native  born,  and 
no  citizen  of  the  United  States,  native  or  naturalized, 
must  be  liable  to  arrest  and  imprisonment  by  any 
foreign  power  for  acts  done  or  words  spoken  in  this 
country ;  and,  if  so  arrested  and  imprisoned,  it  is 
the  duty  of  the  Government  to  interfere  in  his  behalf. 
Tenth  We  cordially  approve  the  course  of  the  Re- 
publican members  of  Congress  in  their  active  sup- 
port of  the  bill  prohibiting  a  further  contraction  of  the 
currency,  in  which  they  faithfully  represented  the 
will  of  the  people  of  Indiana.  And  this  convention 
expresses  their  unwavering  confidence  in  the  wisdom 
and  patriotism  of  Oliver  P.  Morton — his  devotion  to 
the  vital  interests  of  the  nation  during  the  past  six 
years  has  endeared  him  to  every  lover  of  Union  and 
Liberty,  and  we  send  greeting  to  him,  in  the  Ameri- 
can Senate,  an  assurance  to  "him  of  our  unqualified 
endorsement  of  his  course. 

Eleventh.  General  Ulysses  S.  Grant  and  the  Hon. 
Schuyler  Col  fax  are  the  choice  of  Indiana  for 
President  and  Vice  President  of  the  United  States; 
and  this  Convention  hereby  instruct  our  delegates  to 
the  National  Convention  to  cast  the  vote  of  Indiana 
for  these  gentlemen. 

A  motion  to  adopt  the  platform  as  a  unit  pre- 
vailed amid  the  wildest  enthusiasm,  and  was  fol- 
lewed  with  three  times  three  and  Yankee  Doodle, 
an  excellent  campaign  air,  by  the  band. 

GEN.    COBURN's   LETTER. 

The  following  letter  was  received  from  Hon. 
John  Coburn,  member  of  Congress  from  the  old 
Sixth  District.  Not  being  read,  it  was  ordered 
published  with  these  proceedings  : 

Washington,  D.  C,  February  17,  1868. 
Hon.  Conrad  Baker  : 

Dear  Sir:  I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge 
through  you  the  invitation  of  the  Republicans  of 
Indianapolis  to  attend  the  coming  State  Convention 
of  our  party.  Nothing  could  afford  me  more  gratifi- 
cation than  to  do  so.     But,  however  much  I  may  de- 


sire to  go,  just  now  it  seems  proper  that  I  should 
remain  here.  The  responsibility  of  what  is  done 
rests  upon  us  individually,  and  cannot,  like  the  labor 
of  legislation,  be  divided.. 

Many  important  measures  arc  being  matured,  and 
an  early  action  is  hoped  to  be  attained  upon  subjects 
vitally  affecting  the  welfare  of  the  people.  Just  now, 
we  are,  from  day  to  day  laboring  at  the  appropriation 
bills,  and  endeavoring,  in  every  way,  to  lessen  tbe 
expenses  of  the  Government.  So  far  as  we  have  pro- 
gressed, the  amounts  are  cut  down  many  millions  or; 
the  appropriations  required  last  year.  The  subject  of 
taxes  and  revenues  is  undergoing  a  thorough  investi- 
gation, and  we  confidently  expect  to  lighten  materi- 
ally the  burdens  of  the  people,  so  needlessly  imposed 
upon  them  by  treason.  The  adjustment  of  the  vast 
public  debt  in  a  manner  giving  the  people  ample 
time  to  pay  it,  at  a  lower  rate  of  interest,  consistent 
with  their  honor,  and  in  the  spirit  of  a  faithful  com- 
pliance with  their  contracts,  will  no  doubt  be  made. 

The  contraction  of  the  currency  has  been  stopped, 
and  by  it  many  millions  of  dollars,  laid  away,  will  be 
unlocked  and  given  to  the  uses  of  business,  causing  a 
revival  of  trade,  and  giving  an  impetus  to  enterprise. 

While  I  am  ready  at  all  times  to  defer  my  opinions 
to  those  of  older  and  more  experienced  men,  I  cannot 
but  believe  that  a  reasonable  expansion  of  our  cur- 
rency would  be  beneficial.  I  cannot  believe  that  a 
hundred  and  fifty  millions  more  greenbacks  would 
cause  unhealthy  prices,  and  throw  busineess  into  the 
line  of  speculation,  or  that  a  depreciation  of  the  cur- 
rency itself  would  ensue.  It  is  plain  to  my  mind 
that  the  volume  of  currency  is  not  sufficient  for  the 
demands  of  business,  and  that  if  we  had  in  the  coun- 
try a  thousand  millions  of  gold  dollars,  every  one  of 
them  would  flow  in  healthy  channels. 

While  we  are  thus  trying  to  do  what  we  can  in 
measures  of  relief,  we  are  annoyed  and  outraged  by 
a  perfidious  and  malignant  Executive,  backed  by  an  un- 
scrupulous and  treasonable  party.  Everything  that 
can  damage  the  public  credit  by  an  unfaithful  and  dis- 
honest management  of  the  treasury  and  the  revenue 
system  is  done.  The  people  are  defrauded  of  millions, 
and  with  blushing  effrontery  the  Administration 
retains  the  perpetrators  of  these  crimes  in  positions  of 
the  highest  honor  and  respnosibility. 

More  than  this,  in  the  great  work  of  reconstruc- 
tion, in  whose  interest  all  that  we  have  expended, 
and  all  that  we  have  sacrificed  have  been  staked,  we 
are  met  at  every  step  by  the  evil  spirit  that  inspired 
treason  to  arm  itself  to  take  the  Nation's  life 

But  the  work  of  reconstruction  goes  bravely  on, 
notwithstanding  the  constant  impediments  thrown  in 
its  way  by  the  apostates  and  rebels  who  throng  in 
legions  against  it.  I  believe  that  before  the  first  of 
April,  Alabama  will  have  taken  her  old  place  beside 
the  altar  of  the  Nation. 

To  the  eye  of  faith  the  regenerated  State  ap- 
proaches. We  can  almost  hear  the  sound  of  her  slo- 
gan, on  the  South  wind,  as  she  draws  near.  We  can 
almost  see  the  Genius  of  Freedom,  like  "jocund  day 
tiptoe  on  the  misty  mountain  top,"  guiding  her  to  he*r 
place  beneath  the  dome  of  the  Capitol,  to  renew  her 
fealty  and  consecrate  her  flag. 

Other  States  will  follow  in  her  path,  and  through 
and  over  all  opposition  will  loyalty  and  liberty  be 
made  the  rule,  wherever  our  boundaries  extend. 
After  all  our  toils,  all  our  loses,  and  all  our  sorrows, 
we  cannot  fail. 

Hoping  you  may  have  a  grand  and  enthusiastic 
Convention, 

I  remain  your  most  obedient  servant, 
John  Cob  urn. 


11 


The  business  of  the  Convention  being  about 
concluded,  loud  calls  were  made  for  ex-Senator 
Henry  S.  Lane,  who  responded  in  his  usual  elo- 
quent manner. 

Col.  It.  W.  Thompson  was  loudly  called  for,  and 
in  answer  addressed  the  Convention  as  follows  : 
Fellow  Citkens  : 

This  not  the'time  for  talking.  We  are  like  men  on 
board  of  a  man-of-war  just  before  a  battle,  clearing 
the  deck  for  action  ;  each  man  taking  his  rank  and 
position,  whether  officer  or  private,  and  preparing  to 
enter  upon  the  great  work  before  him.  We  are  but 
laying  out  the  groundwork  of  a  political  controversy 
second  in  importance  to  none  that  ever  transpired  in 
this  land.  Our  nation's  life  has  been  imperilled  by 
the  hand  of  treason  and  rebellion,  and  our  gallant 
soldiers  have  saved  it  from  destruction.  That  life  is 
still  imperilled,  and  it  is  our  duty  once  more  to  save 
it.  Will  not  each  one  of  you  take  his  position  in  the 
i-anks,  and  fight  it  to  the  death  ?  If  I  fall  in  this 
contest,  I  will  fall  with  my  face  to  the  foe.  Remem- 
ber that  in  this  contest  we  have  to  settle  these  great 
questions  that  lie  at  the  very  foundations  of  our  insti- 
tutions. But  the  other  day  and  our  nation  was  at 
peace  with  all  the  world — pursuing  its  great,  grand 
md  glorious  career — shedding  out  over  the  nations  of 
;he  earth  a  light  brighter  far  than  any  nation  ever 
saw  before;  and  yet  there  were  those  "in  our  midst 
hat  had  been  protected  by  its  flag  and  by  its  institu- 
tions, and  who  nevertheless  sought  to  destroy  it. 
rhe  hosts  of  treason  and  rebellion  were  driven  back 
jj  the  patriotism  and  bravery  of  our  sons  and  broth- 
ers, and  that  old  flag  of  ours  has  been  baptized  in  the 
)lood  of  one  of  the  most  heroic  and  successful  con- 
liets  the  world  ever  saw.  Now,  we  are  asked  by  our 
political  opponents  to  permit  these  men,  whose  hands 
ire  covered  over  with  the  blood  of  our  kindred,  to 
;ako  their  scats  in  the  national  councils  side  by  side 
md  equal  in  all  political  privileges  with  the  brave, 
he  bold,  the  gallant  soldier  who  bared  the  breast  to 
he  foe  upon  a  hundred  battle  fields.  Do  you  recog- 
lize  that  equality?  I  know  that  you  do  not.  Now 
hat  the  relations  that  existed  before  the  war  may  not 
)e  so  restored  that  these  rebels  and  traitors  wi'll  be 
ible  again  to  imperil  the  life  of  the  nation,  let  us 
sach  on  this  20th  clay  of  February,  1868,  have  an 
>ath  registered  in  heaven  that  we  will  fight  and  con- 
inue  to  fight  in  our  country's  cause  until  the  pillars 
)f  the  Government  are  so  securely  planted  that 
leither  factions  at  home  nor  all  the  powers  of  the 
;arth  combined  shall  ever  be  able  to  destroy  them.  If 
ve  all  go  home  from  this  Convention  with  the  truth 
mpressed  upon  our  minds  that  duty  demands  of  us 
hat  we  go  into  this  contest  with  one  spirit  and  one 
nind,  the  next  October  victory  will  again  perch 
jpon  our  standard,  ami.  that  stern,  tried,  unconquered 
^nd  unconquerable  soldier  who  received  the  sword  of 
he  rebellion  shall  take  hold  of  the  helm  and  steer 
he  ship  of  State  into  a  quiet  harbor  once  more.  Then 
rou  and  I  and  all  of  us  will  be  at  peace,  the  Union 
>erpetuated  and  the  nation  save 3 . 

Will  Cumback  was  wanted,  but  not  being  in  the 
oom,  the  calls  were  changed  to  Judge  Hughes. 
n  acknowledging  the  compliment,  the  Chairman 
aid  that  the  Convention  had  concluded  all  of  its 
business  save  that  of  listening  to  the  address  of 
Governor  Baker,  its  nominee,  which  was  prepared 
or  the  Convention,  and  not  for  a  mass  meeting. 
n  consideration  of  the   lateness  of  the  hour,  he 


would  entertain  a  motion  to  adjourn,  which  vjr&s 
made,  and  a  recess  taken  until  half-nast  seven 
P.  M. 


NIGHT  SESSION. 
A  large  audience  assembled  at  the  Hall  at 
night,  and  after  order  was  called  by  the  President- 
Governor  Baker  was  introduced,  and  received 
with  very  great  enthusiasm.  He  addressed  the 
Convention  in  the  following  speech : 

The  time  has  arrived  when  another  of  those  great 
periodical  contests  which  are  incident  to  popular  gov- 
ernments is  about  to  be  inaugurated.  The  principles, 
however,  for  which  we  shall  contend  in  the  impend- 
ing struggle  are  the  same  for  which  the  loyal,  liberty- 
loving  Union  men  of  the  country  have  been  contin- 
ually battling  since  the  commencement  of  the  Rebel- 
lion in  1861. 

However  some  men  may  desire  to  forget  the  record 
of  individuals  and  of  parties  during  the  years  inter- 
vening between  the  reduction  of  Fort  Sumter  and 
the  surrender  of  the  rebel  armies  of  Lee  and  John- 
ston, the  ghosts  of  the  past  will  not  down  at  their 
bidding ;  and  the  same  men  who  made  the  Hartford 
Convention  do  duty  for  them  against  political  oppo- 
nents who  were  in  nowise  responsible  for  its  action, 
must  be  made  to  remember  that  that  Convention  was 
a  pattern  of  loyalty  when  compared  with  the  Chicago 
conclave  of  1864. 

The  Republican  party  would  be  false  to  itself  and 
false  to  the  country  if  it  permitted  .the  so-called  Dem- 
ocratic party  to  assume  the  offensive  now.  ,  That 
party  is  still  the  prisoner  in  the  dock,  on  trial  for  itt- 
life  at  the  Bar  of  the  Nation,  and  no  amount  of  de- 
nunciation of  the  prosecuting  officers,  no  amount  of 
special  pleading,  can  divert  the  minds  of  the  triors 
from  the  real  issue  which  is  "guilty  or  not  guilty"'  of 
compassing  the  death  of  the  Republic. 

Men  who,  during  the  war,  denounced  greenback:- 
as  unconstitutional,  and  not  possessing  even  the 
righteousness  of  filthy  rags,  may  now  pretend  to  be 
so  enamored  of  them  as  to  propose  to  inundate  the 
country  with  paper  money  by  their  unlimited  issue. 

Men  who,  at  Chicago  and  elsewhere,  denounced 
test  oaths  as  the  invention  of  tyranny,  may  now  pre- 
tend to  rely  upon  the  iron-clad  oath  as  a  sufficient 
security  against  the  admission  of  rebels  to  Congress. 

Men  who,  during  the  war,  denounced  the  draft,  and 
boasted  that  they  had  never  asked  any  man  to  volun- 
teer, and  who  asseverated  that  the  Union  could  not 
be  restored  by  force,  may  now  resolve  and  re-resolve 
that  the  Union  has  thus  been  restored,  and  that  they 
did  it,  but  still  the  intelligent  people  of  the  country 
will  apply  to  them  the  infallible  rule  of  judgment,., 
"by  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them,"  and  allow  them 
to  take  those  eligible  back  seats  to  which  their  friend,, 
Mr.  Johnson,  so  politely  invited  them  in  1864. 

The  restoration  of  the  States  lately  in  rebellion  to 
their  practical  relations  to  the  Government  of  the 
United  States,  is  the  paramount  question  of  the  day, 
on  the  proper  solution  of  which  all  subordinate  ques- 
tions in  a  large  measure  depend.  Two  distinct  plan? 
of  reconstruction  are  presented  to  the  country — the 
one  known  as  the  Presidential  plan,  and  which  now 
has  the  support  of  the  Democratic  party;  the  other 
known  as  the  Congressional  plan,  which  has  the  en- 
dorsement of  the  great  loyal  Union  Republican  party, 
but  for  whose  efforts  during  the  war  no  plan  of  recon- 
struction would  now  be  possible.  The  advocates  of 
taese  two  distinct  plans  of  reconstruction  differ  bota 


12 


as  to  the  law  and  the  facts  which  enter  into  any  in- 
quiry involving  the  merits  of  each. 

The  subject,  therefore,  naturally  divides  itself  into 
the  two  following  questions,  under  which  I  propose 
to  treat  it : 

1st.  What  are  the  facts  affecting  the  merits  of  the 
two  plans  of  reconstruction  now  proposed  to  the 
country? 

2d.  "What  is  the  legal  status  of  the  States  lately  in 
rebellion,  and  what  are  the  constitutional  powers  of 
Congress  and  the  President  respectively  over  the 
questions  involved  in  their  restoration? 

If  the  facts  are  as  the  organs  of  Democratic  public 
opinion  assert  them  to  be,  Congress  might  well,  for 
the  sake  of  accomplishing  a  speedy  restoration  of  the 
revolted  States,  wave  any  irregularities  in  the  Presi- 
dential proceedings  and  ratify  acts  which  are  believed 
to  be  beyond  the  scope  of  the  constitutional  powers  of 
the  Executive  Department  of  the  Government. 

What,  then,  does  the  Democratic  party  allege  the 
facts  to  be  which  should  induce  Congress  to  recognize 
the  State  organizations  formed  under  the  auspices  of 
the  President  as  legal,  valid  State  governments? 

It  is  believed  no  better  or  fairer  method  can  be  em- 
ployed of  ascertaining  the  position  of  the  Democratic 
party  on  these  questions  of  fact  than  by  allowing  their 
distinguished  standard-bearer  in  this  State,  Senator 
Hendricks,  to  state  them  in  his  own  language.  He 
said,  in  his  8th  of  January  speech,  and  substantially 
reiterated  the  statement  in  a  subsequent  speech  in  the 
Senate : 

1st.  That  after  the  close  of  the  war  the  people  of 
the  South  "  entirely  acquiesced  in  the  results  of  the 
war,  yielding  obedience  to  law  and  respect  to  the  au- 
thority of  the  United  States." 

2d.  "  That  the  people  of  all  the  Southern  States 
adopt  the  President's  recommendations  and  elected 
delegates  to  Conventions ;  Constitutions  were  made, 
submitted,  voted  upon  and  ratified."  * 

3d.  "That  in  each  State  Constitution  slavery  was 
prohibited;  their  debt  contracted  in  the  rebellion  was 
repudiated  ;  the  right  of  secession  was  expressly  and 
in  the  most  solemn  manner  abandoned,  and  their 
several  ordinances  of  secession  were  repudiated  and 
declared  invalid." 

4th.  "  These  Constitutions  were  approved  and  rat- 
ified according  to  the  forms  always  respected,  and  were 
acceptable  to  the  people  both  North  and  South." 

If  these  propositions  were  true,  or  even  true  in  the 
main,  the  revolted  States  and  their  people  -would  to- 
day be  represented  in  both  Houses  of  Congress  of  the 
United  States.  My  present  duty  is  to  show  that  with 
a  few  slight  exceptions,  which  will  be  noticed,  they 
have  no  foundation  in  truth  or  in  fact.  In  other 
words,  I  put  in  an  appearance  for  the  Republican 
party  of  Indiana  and  plead  the  general  denial  to  the 
whole  compact. 

Although  the  burthen  of  proving  these  propositions 
is  on  the  Democratic  party,  by  whom  they  are 
affirmed,  I  take  upon  myself,  contrary  to  the  ordinary 
rule  in  such  cases,  the  duty  of  disproving  the  affirma- 
tions and  establishing  the  denial.  This  I  shall  do, 
not  by  an  exhaustive  review  of  the  evidence,  but  by 
such  a  reference  to  the  principal  links  in  the  chain  as 
will  suffice  for  the  end  proposed. 

First,  then,  did  the  people  of  the  South,  after  the 
close  of  the  war,  yield  obedience  to  law  and  respect 
to  the  authority  of  the  United  States? 

In  entering  upon  this  inquiry,  it  should  be  borne 
in  mind  that  there  then  was,  and  still  is,  on  the  Stat- 
ute Book  of  the  United  States  an  act  of  Congress  en- 
titled "An  act  to  prescribe  an  oath  of  office,  and  for 
other  purposes,"  approved  July  2,  1862,  by  which 
every  person  elected  or  appointed  to  any  office  of 


honor  or  profit  under  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  (the  President  only  accepted),  is  required,  be- 
fore entering  upon  the  duties  of  his  office,  to  take  and 
subscribe  an  oath  that  he  had  never  voluntarily  borne 
arms  against  the  United  States  since  becoming  a  citi- 
zen thereof;  "that  he  had  voluntarily  given  no  aid. 
countenance,  counsel  or  encouragement  to  persons 
engaged  in  armed  hostility  to  the  United  States ;  that 
he  had  not  sought  or  accepted,  nor  attempted  to  exer- 
cise the  functions  of  any  office  whatever  under  any 
authority  or  pretended  authority  in  hostility  to  the 
United  States ;  that  he  had  not  yielded  a  voluntary 
support  to  any  pretended  government,  authority, 
power  or  Constitution  within  the  United  States  hostile 
or  inimical  thereto. 

Before  proceeding  to  show  how  much  obedience  the 
defeated  rebels  of  the  South  yielded  to  this  law,  and 
how  much  respect  they  manifested  for  the  authority 
by  which  it  was  enacted,  I  desire  to  express  my  grat- 
ification that  Mr.  Hendricks  seems  to  approve  this 
oath,  and  to  have  faith  in  its  efficacy. 

He  said  in  his  late  speech,  "that  that  man  is  too 
stupid  or  too  dishonest  to  merit  the  confidence  of  the 
people  who  now  tells  them  that  red-handed  rebels 
could  be  restored  to  power.  Since  1862  it  has  been 
and  now  is,"  continues  he,  "  the  statute  law  of  Con- 
gress that  no  man  shall  be  a  member  of  Congress,  or 
hold  any  office  under  the  United  States,  who  engaged 
in  or  gave  aid  to  the  rebellion." 

As  no  doubt  is  here  expressed  of  the  constitution- 
ality of  this  statute,  no  desire  expressed  to  repeal  it. 
no  want  of  confidence  signified  as  to  its  propriety  or 
efficacy,  I  am  constrained  to  believe  that  the  Senator 
has  changed  the  opinion  he  formerly  held  on  the  same 
subject. 

I  well  remember  that  in  18G4,  in  his  place  in  the 
Senate,  he  most  emphatically  condemned  this  oath  by 
comparing  it  with  the  odious  religious  test  oaths  for- 
merly required  to  be  taken  by  members  of  the  British 
Parliament.  But  be  that  as  it  may,  Mr.  Hendricks 
now  relies  upon  this  oath  to  keep  Congress  uncontam- 
inated  by  the  presence  of  "  red-handed  rebels,"  and 
thereby  admits  the  validity  of  the  act  prescribing  it. 

How  much  obedience,  then,  did  the  people  of  the 
South  yield  to  this  law?  How  much  respect  to  the 
authoritv  of  the  United  States  by  which  it  was  en- 
acted? 

Under  the  Presidential  plan  of  reconstruction,  and 
under  the  lead  of  Mr.  Johnson,  all  the  rebel  States, 
except  Texas,  proceeded  in  the  fall  of  1865  to  elect 
Senators  and  Representatives  in  Congress.  When 
they  did  this  they  were  fully  informed  of  the  exist- 
ence of  the  act  of  Congress  prescribing  the  "  iron- 
clad "  oath. 

How  much  obedience  did  they  yield  to  that  law  ? 
How  much  respect  did  they  evince  for  that  oath  ?~Let 
a  few  facts  answer  that  question  : 

Georgia  chose  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  late  Via* 
President  of  the  rebel  Confederacy,  and  Herschel  V. 
Johnson,  late  u  Senator  in  the  rebel  Congress,  to  re- 
present her  reconstructed  loyalty  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States  ;  and  her  people  elected  two  Rebel  Gen- 
erals to  seats  in  the  House  of  Representatives. 

North  Carolina  sent  as  her  Senators  William  A. 
Graham,  fresh  from  the  Confederate  Senate,  and  Mr. 
Pool,  a  member  of  the  Rebel  Legislature .  of  that 
State  during  the  war. 

In  the  House  the  people  of  the  same  State  elected 
a  member  of  the  Rebel  Congress,  a  Colonel  in  the 
rebel  army,  and  a  member  of  the  Convention  which 
passed  her  Ordinance  of  Secession. 

South  Carolina  chose  as  her  Senators,  a  Confederate 
State's  Judge,  and  a  staff  officer  of  Beauregard  in  the 
rebel  army. 


13 

•u  ...  nf  Kav  ThA   butchery  at   Memphis,  and  the  slaughter  at 

Virginia  elected  to  the  House  two^^  T Orlean "peak  in  thunder  tones  in  favor  of  the 

Secession  Convention  who  had  acted  £  ™™ew  £^1^  that  the  people  of  the  South  yielded  obe- 

that  body  after  the  commencement  of  h^0^.  h  gJ^U  to  law  and  reipect  to  the  authority  of  the  Uni- 

Tbese  are  mere  samples  of  the  kind  ot  men  \mu  u  r  attention  to  a  bill 

the  South  chose  as  members  of  the  39th  Co«gros^and  ted State         U *;me    ^      £  ed 

it  is  perfectly  notorious  that,  as  a  gener ^ «J°>  ™  1*°  f^cl'J  of  Police  of  the  City  of  New  Orleans  to 

elections  which  resulted  in  t^cWof  ™f™^  J™  City  Treasurer  of  that  city,  after  the  murder  of 

loyalty  to  the  government  of  the  Tjnited States  was  1  e        J  Convention.     Thus  it  reads : 

proscribed,  while  service  in  the  Confederate.cause  was  mei  1(Comptr0Ller's  Office, 

a  sure  passport  to  popular  lavor.  ;^EW  Orleans,  November  18,  186T. 

With  facts  like  these  staring  us  in  the  face  it  is  not  p 

ence  to  the  law  and  respect  to  the  authority  ot  the  (Jjt    of  New  Orleans, 

United  States                                                          ,  To  Thomas  B.  Adams,          I/r. 

But  this  is  not  the  only  evidence  of  the  continued  hauling /orty  si*  loads  of  dead 

rebellious  temper  and  spirit  of  he  ^0  °f*^  A  °^  ,J*M  from  around  the  Mechanics'  Inati- 

and  their  utter  want  ot   respect  foJ^  author^  01  on               at  $3 $133 

the  United  States,  North  Carolina  for  instance  made  tute                       ^  from                 House  tQ 

the  taking  effect  of  sundry  of  her  law*m  re    unto  a                   j  ^                ^  &  ^ ^ 

freedtnente  depend  ^^J^S^t\S^  P*uS  fifteen  loads  of  wounded  from  station  to 

tary  protection  e*W*ed  * .tin* <*•» °*l^£b? JgJ  Freedman's  Hospital,  at  $4 &0 

United  States,  thereby  refusing  to    '  ^cept  the  „tua  *                    ^^   ^  for  mysclt  and  aids 

passing  T  act    approve,!  —      ^1,^      £££?££  0    aead  and   wounded  Union  men 

s»~33£S523effi  fSisss?'-'^-* 

for  their  country.  rpppiipd  the  sanction  of  Congress  andthe  people. 

Another  very  significant  act  showing    he  respect  «»^™  ~S  proclamatTon  of  May  29,  1865,  he 

of  M^sis'ppi  L  the  authority  of  the  United  States  ^  *£*%&  a3     condi^n    f  pardon?  to  take 

was  the  fact  that  her  Legislature,  on  the  1st _ ot  ve  l   Bubscribe  the  following  oath,  viz: 

cemher,  1865,  obliterated  the  very  name  of  the  only  An^sc  lemnlv  s WQar,  or  affirm,  in  the  presence  of 

oountyin  the  State  that  had  been  loyal  to  the  Gov-  *  ^^  -that  1  wm  henceforth  faithfully  suj>. 

nZ    during  the   war,  and  re-baptized  it  m   he  ^gf^t               ^  CoMtitution    f  the  Urn- 

Sof  ^e  chief  of  the  rebellion,  by  giving  it   he  P^g^^d  tbe  union  of  the  States  thereunder; 

name  of  Davis.      The  name  of  the  county,  sea   of  the  ^»^in  like  manner  abide  by  and  faithfully 

Hendricks  and  assist  him  to  represent  true  loyalty     J^lor^ ^  ^  ^  goyernment  in  tbat  state,  one 
and  true  constitutional  liberty  ? 


16 


laboring  under  the  double  misfortune  of  having 
given  one  of  his  limbs  to  his  country,  and  of  hav- 
ing a  black  skin,  to  be  a  resident  of  Mississippi. 
and  to  be  assessed  tvith  the  special  poll  tax  of 
which  mention  has  already  been  made.  Suppose 
him  not  to  have  the  money  with  which  to  pay  this 
tax;  and  suppose  another  discharged  soldier, 
wearing  the  Confederate  grey,  to  have  been  ele- 
vated, in  consequence  of  his  devotion  to  the  rebel 
cause,  to  the  office  of  Tax  Collector,  by  his  admir- 
ing fellow  rebels.  Behold  the  rebel  soldier  clutch 
the  black  man  dressed  in  blue,  and  place  him 
upon  the  block  and  expose  him  to  sale,  to  pay  a 
tax  from  which  the  rebel  auctioneer  is  exempt. 

In  witnessing  such  a  scene  as  this,  think  you 
that  the  heart  or  hand  of  the  Northern  man  who 
who  venerates  a  mother,  or  loves  a  sister  or  wife, 
would  be  in  favor  of  the  rebel  man-seller  ? 

But  again,  I  think  I  see  in  Mississippi  two  dis- 
charged white  soldiers,  both  maimed  by  wounds 
received  in  battle,  the.  one  still  wearing  the  loyal 
■  blue,  the  other  the  Confederate  grey ;  each  was 
faithful  to  the  cause  for  which  he  fought;  the  man 
in  grey,  because  of  his  fidelity  to  rebelljpn,  is  ex- 
empt from  paying  a  poll-tax,  and  has  been  elected 
Sheriff  of  the  county.  Behold  him  march  off  the 
Union  soldier  to  perform  six  days  of  enforced  la- 
bor to  raise  a  fund,  one-fifth  of  which  is  to  go  to 
the  man  in  grey  and  other  disabled  rebels,  to 
compensate  them  for  their  sufferings  in  attempt- 
ing to  destroy  the  government  to  which  both 
alike  owed  allegiance.  In  whose  favor  would  the 
heart  and  hand  of  the  Northern  man  be,  under 
such  circumstances,  if  not  himself  at  heart  a  trai- 
tor ?  Would  he  not,  amid  such  surroundings, 
sing  '« We'll  rally  'round  the  flag,  boys,  we'll  rally 
once  again,"  before  we  will  tolerate  the  perpetra- 
tion of  such  outrages  under,  color  of  law  ? 

But  I  must  proceed  to  other  questions  of  fact 
involved  in  the  issue. 

The  Democracy  assert,  and  we  deny  that  the 
people  of  all  the  Southern  States  adopted  the 
President's  recommendations,  and  elected  dele- 
gates to  conventions,  constitutions  were  made, 
submitted,  voted  upon,  and  ratified.  How  stand 
the  facts?  There  are  two  classes  of  rebel  States 
that  are  still  without  representation  in  Congress. 
In  the  first  class  is  Virginia,  Louisiana  and  Ar- 
kansas, in  each  of  which  there  is  some  sort  of  or- 
ganization claiming  to  be  the  legitimate  govern- 
ment of  the  State  at  the  time  Mr.  Johnson  com- 
menced his  work  of  reconstruction.  As  to  these 
three  States,  he  appointed  no  provisional  govern- 
ors, and  provided  for  no  conventions,  but  recog- 
nized the  organizations  existing  attheclose'of  the 
war  as  the  legitimate  governments  of  these  States 
respectively. 

The  Convention  which  amended,  or  pretended 
to  amend  the  Constitution  of  the  State  of  Virginia, 
met  in  Alexandria  in  the  summer  of  1864,  at  a 
time  when  the  greater  portion  of  that  State  was 
in  the  posession  of  the  rebel  armies.  The  record 
shows  that  the  vote  on  the  amendment  abolishing 
slavery  stood,  ayes  13,  to  one  nay.  So  that  this 
grand  Constitutional  Convention  of  Virginia  con- 
sisted of  fourteen  members,  who  represented  the 
people  of  Richmond,  then  the  seat  of  government 
of  the  rebel  Confederacy,  as  well  as  all  other  por- 
tions of  the  State  then  under  rebel  control.*  To 
call  such  a  meeting  a  convention  of  the  people  of 
Virginia  is  to  misrepresent  its  character,  and  to 


trifle  with  the  intelligence  of  the  public,  and  1 
aver  that  the  action  of  this  convention  never  was 
submitted  to,  voted  upon,  or  ratified  by  any  por- 
tion of  the  people  of  Virginia,  not  even  by  the 
people  of  the  city  of  Alexandria.  Can  a  consti~ 
tution  so  made  or  amended  be  binding  on  any 
person?  And  yet  this  is  the  constitution  under 
which  it  is  insisted  that  the  present  Virginia 
State  organization  must  be  recognized. 

What  are  the  facts  in  relation  to  Louisiana? 
In  1864  General  Banks  issued  a  military  order 
providing  for  the  election  of  a  constitutional  con- 
vention at  a  time  when  a  great  portion  of  the 
State  was  held  by  rebel  armies,  and  the  conven- 
tion which  assembled  under  this  military  order 
framed  the  constitution  which  the  Democratic 
party  insist  must  now  be  recognized  by  Congress, 
because  the  President  has  seen  proper  to  treat  the 
State  organization  formed  under  it  as  the  legiti- 
mate State  government  of  Louisiana.  Congress 
had  more  than  once,  before  Mr.  Johnson  took 
upon  himself  to  recognize  this  organization,  repu- 
diated the  whole  thing,  and  Mr.  Hendricks,  by  his 
votes  and  speeches  in  the  Senate,  had  concurred 
in  this  action. 

After  the  Presidential  election  of  1864,  a  joint 
resolution  was  presented  to  the  Senate,  declaring 
that  the  revolted  States  which,  including  Louisi- 
ana, were  named  in  the  preamble,  were  not  en- 
titled to  be  represented  in  the  electoral  college 
for  the  choice  of  President  and  Vice  President  of 
the  United  States,  for  the  term  of  office,  com- 
mencing on  the  fourth  day  of  March,  1865. 

A  motion  was  made  to  except.  Louisiana  from 
the  operation  of  the  resolution,  by  striking  the 
name  of  that  State- therefrom,  and  thereby  permit 
her  people  to  vote  for  President  and  Vice  Presi- 
dent. The  amendment  did  not  prevail,  and  Mr. 
Hendricks,  subsequently,  in  1866,  in  explaining 
his  vote  against  striking  the  name  of  Louisiana 
from  the  preamble,  said:  'I  voted  against  strik- 
ing it  out,  for  I  did  not  think  the  government  es- 
tablished there  by  General  Banks  at  the  point  of 
the  bayonet,  was  such  a  government  as  we  ought 
then  to  recognize.." 

What  has  occurred  since,  I  ask,  to  make  it  more 
worthy  of  recognition?  It  still  has  the  same  con- 
stitution formed  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  and 
one  which  does  not  repudiate  the  debt  created  in 
aid  of  the  rebellion.  If  the  people  of  Louisiana 
were  not  in  a  condition  to  participate  in  a  Presi- 
dential election  in  November,  1864,  by  what  pro- 
cess of  reasoning  can  it  be  shown  that  they  were 
in  a  condition  to  frame  or  amend  a  constitution 
in  April,  1864? 

At  the  election  for  Governor,  held  under  this 
organization,  in  1864,  only  10,725  votes  were  cast 
in  the  entire  State,  and  yet  this  constitution  and 
government  is  said  to  rest  on  the  broad  basis  of 
the  sovereign  will  of  the  people  of  Louisiana.  A 
glance  of  the  facts  is  sufficient  to  negative  any 
such  pretense. 

The  State  organization  in  Arkansas,  stands  on 
no  better  or  broader  popular  foundation. 

The  other  class  of  revolted  States,  still  unrepre- 
sented in  Congress,  consists  of  those  for  which  Mr. 
Johnson  appointed  Provisional  Governors,  viz: 
North  Carolina,  Mississippi,  Georgia,  Alabama, 
South  Carolina,  Florida  and  Texas. 

How  stands  the  fact  as  to  the  people  of  these 
States   electing   delegates   to   these   conventions 


17 


which  framed  the  constitutions  under-  which 
recognition  is  demanded  ?' 

>  I  answer  that  in  no  one  of  these  seven  States 
did  the  great  body  of  the  people  participate  in 
the  elections  by  which  these  conventions  were 
called..  Not  more  than  one  third  of  the  white 
men  in  each  of  these  States  who  would  have  been 
entitled  to  vote,  had  they  never  been  guilty  of 
rebellion,  took  part  in  these  elections ;  and  the 
great  majority,  of  those  who  did  vote,  were  cov- 
ered all  over  with  treason,  while  the  loyal  black 
men  were  allowed  no  voice  in  the  choice  of  dele- 
gates. 

Can  a  convention  which  rests  on  so  narrow  a 
popular  bar;is  as  this,  be  said  to  represent  the  sov- 
ereign will  of  the  people  of  either  of  these  States? 
But  waiving  thi3,  if  you  please,  did  all  these 
States  repudiate  the  debts  contracted  in  aid  of  re- 
bellion ?  Did  each  one  of  them,  as  is  so  confident- 
ly asserted,  expressly  abandon  the  right  of  seces- 
sion in  the  most  solemn  manner,  and  repudiate 
and  declare  invalid  their  several  ordinances  of 
secession  ? 

I  assert  that  the  record  shows  that  the  South 
Carolina  Convention  never  did  repudiate  her  rebel 
debt,  and  that  neither  South  Carolina  nor  Geor 
gia  ever  did  expressly  or  impliedly  in  a  solemn  or 
unsolemn  manner,  abandon  the  right  of  secession, 
or  repudiate  or  declare  invalid  their  respective 
ordinances  of  secession.  On  the  contrary,  the 
record  shows' that  both  of  these  States  simply  re- 
pealed their  respective,  ordinances  of  secession, 
just  as  your  Legislature  might  repeal  an  act  at 
one  session  and  revive  the  same  act  any  subse- 
quent session. 

Each  of  these  conventions  did  insert  a  clause 
in  the  several  constitutions  adopted  prohibiting 
slavery,  but  it  was  done  under  Presidential  coer- 
cion as  is  manifest  from  the  faot  that  their  subse- 
quent legislation  disregarded  all  such  inhibitions. 

How  then,  in  the  next  place,  were  these  con- 
stitutions submitted,  approved  and  ratified  accord- 
ing to  forms  always  respected,  as  is  alleged  in  the 
complaint  of  the  Democratic  party  ? 

I  affirm,  and  the  record  of  these  conventions 
prove  the  fact,  so  to  be  that  not  one  of  these  con- 
stutions,  (except  perhaps  Texas),  was  ever  sub- 
mitted to  a  vote  of  any  portion  of  the  people  for 
which  it  was  framed ;  nor  was  any  attempt  made 
at  such  submission. 

Leaving  Texas  out  of  the  question,  (as  to  which 
1  am  not  advised),  the  only  fact  which  does  exist 
that  couid  give  even  the  color  of  truth  to  the  al- 
legation that  they  were  submitted,  voted  upon 
and  ratified,  is  the  circumstance  that,  in  the  sin- 
gle State  of  North  Carolina,  one  solitary  clause 
prohibiting  slavery,  was  submitted  and  approved 
by  a  majority  of  those  who  were  permitted  to  vote, 
and  who  did  vote  upon  the  question.  And  in  this 
same  North  Carolina  convention,  a  proposition 
was  made  to  refer  in  like  manner  to  a  popular 
vote  the  ordinance  repudiating  the  debt  contract- 
ed in  aid  of  the  rebellion,  and  it  was  promptly 
voted  down,  because  it  was  known  that  the  people 
whom  Mr.  Johnson  permitted  to  vote,  would  n6t 
ratify  it. 

But,  it  is  said  that  these  constitutions  were  not 
only  ratified  according  to  the  forms  always  re- 
spected, but  that  they  were  acceptable  to  the  peo- 
ple, both  North  and  South.  Where  is  the  evi- 
dence of  the  truth  of  this  allegation?     I  reply 

2 


that  it  is  disproved  by  the  fact,  that  these  States 
(Texas  excepted),  sought  admission  for  their  Sen- 
ators and  Representatives  into  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  in  December,  1805,  and  admission 
was  denied  them ;  and  the  people  of  the  loyal 
States  at  the  elections  in  1366,  sustained  the  ac- 
tion of  Congress. 

I  now  confidently  submit  that  I  have  disproved 
every  count  in  this  Democratic  declaration,  and 
that  on  these  facts,  we  are  entitled  to  a  verdict, 
andthat  judgment  should  follow  the  verdict  unless 
there  is  something  in  the  law  of  the  case  that 
renders  a  contrary  judgment  necessary. 

Let  us  now  consider  the  question  of  law  at 
issue  between  us  and  our  political  adversaries.  I 
thus  state  them. 

1st.  .We  insist,  in  the  language  of  Mr.  John- 
son's proclamation,  that  the  rebellion  which  was 
waged  by  a  portion  of  the.  people  of  the  United 
States  against  the  properly  constituted  authori- 
ties of  the  government  in  J,he  most  violent  and 
revolting  form,  deprived  the  people  of  each  of 
the  revolted  States  of  all  civil  government.  Or 
in  other, words,  that  the  only  civil  governments 
these  States  had,  became,  and  were  part  and  par- 
cel of  the  rebellion,  and  perished  with  it. 

2d.  We  further  insist  that  tlaese  revolted  States, 
being  utterly  destitute  of  any  civil  governments, 
were  not  competent  to  restore  themselves,  nor 
was  it  competent  for  the  President  to  restore  them 
to  their  practical  relations  to  the  government  ; 
but  they  having  sought  to  destroy  the  nation, 
and  being  overthrown  in  the  attempt,  the  nation 
alone  through  its  law-making  power,  can,  and 
must  prescribe  (or  at  least  sanction)  the  terms 
and  conditions  of  restoration. 

The  Democratic  position  as  1  understand  it,  is 
the  reverse  of  those  I  have  laid  down. 

1st.  They  Say  civil  government  was  not  de- 
stroyed in  the  revoltea  States  by  the  rebellion 
and  its  overthrow,  and  that  these  States  by  their 
own  acts,  could  place  themselves  in  a  position  to 
demand,  as  a  matter  of  right,  admission  to  repre- 
sentation in  both  Houses  of  Congress. 

2d.  That  if  anything  was  necessary  to  be  done 
by  the  federal  government  to  enable  these  States 
to  accomplish  their  restoration,  it  was  an  execu- 
tive act  to  be  performed  by  the  President  and  not 
a  legislative  act  to  be  done  by  Congress,  and  it 
being  an  executive  act,  the  decision  of  the  Presi- 
dent is  conclusive  and  binding  on  the  other  depart- 
ments of  the  government. 

In  his  recent  speech  in  the  Senate,  Mr.  Hen- 
dricks said,  that,  "  upon  questions  of  policy  and 
propriety,  men  may  be  educated  bypassing  events. 
We  may  change  our  opinions  in  regard  to  ques- 
tions of  policy  and  propriety-  according  to  the 
changing  scenes  that  are  passing  before  us,  but 
so  far  as  the  law  of  the  country  is  concerned,  es- 
pecially the  higher  law  of  the  land,  the  constitu- 
tion, itself  how  are  we  so  readily  to  -change  our 
opinions.  Events  do  not  change  that.  We  are 
not  allowed  to  be  educated  by  passing  events  in 
regard  to  the  proner  meaning  of  the  constitution 
of  the  United  State." 

Suppose  we  subject  Mri  Hend rick's  own  opin- 
ions as  to  the  legal  and  constitutional  status  of 
these  revolted  States  to  the  test  he  here  lays 
down  and  see  whether  he  is  not  in  process  of  edu- 
cation on  these  grave  questions.  In  his  speech 
made  in  the    "circle,"  at  Indianapolis,   on   the 


18 


3th  day  of  A.ugust,  1866,  and  reported  in  the 
Indianapolis  Daily  Herald  of  the  next  day,  speak- 
ing of  the  status  of  the  rebel  States,  he  then  said, 
"  I  believe  that  during  the  whole  period  of  the 
rebellion  the  governments  of  the  States  con- 
tinued to  exist,  and  1  look  for  the  time  when  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  will  say  that 
the  acts  of  the  State  Governments  during  the 
entire  period  of  the  revolution,  which  were  not 
political  in  their  character,  and  which  were  not 
to  contribute  aid  to  the  rebellion,  were  legal  and 
valid,  and  that  the  acts  of  the  confederate  gov- 
ernment, so  called,  were  ab  initio  void.  For  my- 
self I  do  not  believe  that  the  President  of  the 
United  States  had  any  occasion  to  re-organize  the 
State  governments.  That  was  my  opinion  about 
it,  but  he  thought  it  to  be  his  duty,  and  the  peo- 
ple accepted  his  proposition,  and  the  people  gave 
validity,  power  and  authority  to  that  to  which  he 
could  contribute  neither." 

Here  you  will  perceive  that  the  Senator  uses 
the  word  government  in  its  proper  sense,  not 
to  signify  a  mere  inanimate  constitution  or  frame 
work  of  government,  but,  as  a  vital,  living  organi- 
zation, having  power  to  make,  execute  and  apply 
laws  to  all  the  affairs  of  life.  He  furthermore 
maintains  that  legal,  living  organization,  of  this 
character  existed  in  all  the  rebel  States  during 
the  entire  period  of  the  revolt,  and  that  all'their 
acts  of  government,  legislative,  executive  and 
judicial,  throughout  the  entire  rebellion,  were 
legal  and  valid,  save  only  such  as  were  political 
or  in  aid  of  the  rebellion. 

Hence,  when  the  war  closed,  according  to  our 
Senator,  Georgia,  for  instance,  had  a  legal  and 
valid  Executive,  a  legal  and  valid  legislature  and 
a  legal  and  valid  judiciary  ;  and  all  she  had  to  do 
was  to  transfer  her  Senators  from  the  Confede- 
rate Senate  to  the  United  States  Senate,  the  same 
legislature  which  elected'  them  to  the  one  elect- 
ing them  to  the  other. 

On  this  theory  these  Senators  while  in  the 
rebel  Senate  were  there  by  virtue  of  an  election 
by  a  valid  legislature,  but  the  act  of  their  election 
being  a  void  act,  they  were  void  rebel  Senators, 
and,  upon  the  election  of  the  same  men  by  the 
same  legislature  to  the  United  States  Senate, 
they  become  proper  and  valid  Senators  of  the 
United  States.  , 

This  theory  is  simple  and  easily  understood, 
but  is  about  as  reasonable  and  loyal  as  it  would 
be  to  contend  that  the  acts  of  a  woman  who  had 
deserted  her  husband  and  lived  in  adultery 
with  another  man  were  legal  and  valid  acts  as 
against  her  husband,  except  only  the  single  act 
of  violating  the  seventh  commandment;  and  this 
violation  being  illegal  and  void  she  could,  of  her 
own  motion,  restore  herself  to  the  home  and  bed 
of  her  outraged  husband  and  he  be  bound  to  re- 
ceive her. 

If  it  is  true  that  the  rebel  States  had  legal  and 
valid  governments,  including  legislative,  execu- 
tive and  judicial  departments,  at  the  close  of  the 
war,  it  follows,  as  Mr.  Hendricks  says  "  that,  there 
was  no  occasion  to  re-organize  their  State  govern- 
ments." 

It  must  be  admitted  that  Mr.  Hendricks  does 
not  stand  alone  in  this  view  of  the  subject,  as 
appears  from  the  fact  that  Governor  Brown,  of 
Georgia,  on  the  3d  day  of  May,  1865,  issued  his 
official  proclamation  calling  an  extra  session  of 


the  Legislature  of  that  State  to  convene  on  the 
22d  day  of  the  same  month.  The  President  did 
not  agree  with  Senator  Hendricks,  and  Governor 
Brown,  as  is  manifest  from  the  fact  that,  on  the 
14th  day  of  May,  1865,  the  President,  through  his 
military  subordinate,  Major  General  Gilmore, 
issued  an  order  annulling  the  proclamation  and 
prohibiting  the  meeting ;  and  afterwards,  on  the 
13th  day  of  June,  1865,  Mr.  Johnson  issued  his 
proclamation,  appointing  a  provisional  Governor 
for  Georgia,  in  which  he  said  "  that  the  rebellion 
had  deprived  the  people  of  that  State  of  all  civil 
government." 

The  Kepublican  .party  then  said,  and  still  insist 
that  the  President  was  right  and  Mr.  Hendricks 
and  Governor  Brown  were  wrong,  on  this  ques- 
tion so  far  as  the  validity  of  the  State  Govern- 
ment of  Georgia  was  concerned.  That  that 
State  had  been  deprived  of  all  civil  government, 
and  that  the  President  only  did  his  duty  in  an- 
nuling,  by  military  orders,  the  official  acts  of 
Governor  Brown. 

But  where  stands  the  'Senator  now,  has  he  not 
so  far  progressed  in  his  "  education  "  in  constitu- 
tional law  as  to  now  stand  on  the  President's  plat- 
form? Let  his  speech  delivered  in  the  Senate,  as 
printed  in  the  Herald  of  this  city,  issued  on  the 
4tli  day  of  this  month,  define  his  present  position. 

In  speaking  of  the  President's  reconstruction 
measures,  he  says:  "His  purpose  then  was  to 
aid  the  people  by  giving  them  the  support  of  an 
organization  just  as  Congress,  without  any  consti- 
tutional provision  on  the  subject,  gives  the  people 
of  a  territory  an  enabling  act,  not  because  Con- 
gress has  power  as  an  original  thing  to  establish  a 
territorial  government,  but  because  Congress  has 
power  to  admit  new  States  into  the  Union.  Con- 
gress may  do  that  which  will  enable  the  people  to 
form  State  Governments.  So  the  Executive  in 
this  case,  in  my  judgement,  very  properly  did 
that  which  would  enable  the  people  to  bring  their 
State  into  practical  relations  with  the  Govern- 
ment." That  is,  according  to  the  Speech  of 
August  8,  1866,  the  President  overthrew,  by  mili- 
tary orders,  the  valid,  legal  State  Government  of 
Georgia  which  existed  at  the  close  of  the  war, 
appointed  a  provisional  Governor,  instead  of  a 
valid  existing  Governor,  and  directed  a  conven- 
tion to  be  called  to  form  a  new  government,  and 
in  doing  all  this  he  did  a  very  proper  thing  to 
enable  the  people  to  bring  their  State  into  prac- 
tical relations  to  the  Government ;  and  the  new 
State  government  built  upon  the  ruins  of  the  old 
valid  State  organization  which  was  overthrown 
by  military  orders,  has  suddenly  become  valid 
also,  and  it  is  a  gross  outrage  that  Congress  does 
not  recognize  it  as  such. 

Verily  here  is  progress;  but  I  am  unable  to 
understand  how  it  was  attained  without  a  change 
of  opinion  on  questions  involving  fundamental 
principles  of  government. 

If  Georgia,  at  the  close  of  the  war  had  a  valid 
government,  consisting  of  an  executive,  a  legisla- 
ture and  judiciary,  which  was  competent  to  per- 
form valid,  non-political  acts  all  through  the  war, 
why  could  not  this  valid  organization  enable  the 
people  to  bring  that  State  into  practical  relations 
to  the  Government?  and  what  right  had  the 
President  to  overthrow  it?  and  when  did  the 
great  body  of  the  people  ever  ratify  that  over- 
throw? 


19 


To  avoid  the  dilemma  in  which  these  different 
positions  taken  by  our  distinguished  Democratic 
Senator  at  different  times  places  him,  he  now  re- 
sorts to  a  new  definition  of  government.  It  is  not 
now  a  living,  moral  and  political  organism  having 
the  power  and  the  instrumentalities  wherewith  to 
make,  execute  and  administer  laws ;  but  on  the 
contrary,  it  has  become  an  inanimate  constitution 
or  frame  work  of  government,  a  dead  parchment 
into  which,  with  proper  Presidential  aid,  it  is  pos- 
sible for  the  people  of  the  State  to  breathe  the 
breath  of  life  and  make  it  a  living  political  soul. 
But  lest  I  should  do.  injustice  to  the  Senator,  let 
him  speak  for  himself.     Thus  he  is  reported ; 

"1st.  I  deny  that  at  the  close  of  the  war  there 
were  no  State  governments  in  the  Southern  States. 

What  was  the  exact  fact  in  regard  to  that  mat- 
ter? No  one  disputes  that  at  the  commencement 
of  the  war  there  were  legal  State  governments  in 
the  ten  States  now  excluded  from  representation. 
These  governments  were  organized  under  consti- 
tutions which  the  people  had  adopted.  I  submit 
to  Senators  then,  as  a  question  of  law,  what  be- 
came of  the  constitutions  at  the  commencement 
of  the  war. 

If  the  Senator  will  tell  me,  as  a  question  of 
law,  what  became  of  these  governments  organ- 
ized under  these  constitutions,  I  will  tell  him 
what  became  of  the  houses  or  shells  in  which 
they  lived,  moved,  and  had  their  being.  I  think 
they  both  went  together  to  the  place  where  all 
bad  rebels  go. 

Tfie  same  logic  that  wjil  destroy  the  organized 
machinery  of  government  because  of  its  partici- 
pancy  in  rebellion,  will  reach  the  frame  work  of 
the  Government  itself  when  it  too  was  perverted 
to  the  same  criminal  use.  The  Constitution  of 
South  Carolina  was  just  as  much  part  and  parcel 
of  the  rebellion  as  the  guns  which  that  State 
owned  before  the  rebellion,  and  which  she  em- 
ployed to  demolish  Fort  Sumter. 

Will  any  body  tell  me  that  these  guns  after 
being  captured  by  the  National  forces,  and  after 
the  suppression  of  the  rebellion,  as  a  matter  of 
right,  immediately  became  the  property  of  South 
Carolino,  because  they  were  inanimate  objects 
and  incapable  of  treason?  Are  we  told  that 
every  thing  done  to  amend  the  Constitution  of 
South  Carolina  so  as  to  make  it  the  instrument  of 
treason,  or  to  pervert  it  to  the  cause  of  rebellion, 
was  illegal  and  void,  and  that  this  Constitution 
is  therefore  of  unimpaired  validity  ?  I  reply,  so 
was  every  act  of  Governor  Magrath,  of  South 
Carolina,  done  in  aid  of  the  rebellion,  illegal  and 
void.  If  so,  the  rebellion  being  suppressed,  and 
the  governor  having  ceased  all  opposition  to  the 
constituted  authority  of  the  nation,  and  the  Con- 
stitution of  South  Carolina  being  no  longer  used 
as  an  instrument  of  rebellion,  why  does  the  one 
cease  to  be  a  valid  Governor  and  the  other  con- 
tinue to  be  a  valid  Constitution? 

The  treason  that  was  so  general  and  so  atroci- 
ous as  to  destroy  the  living  organism,  dragging 
down  to  the  grave  with  it  the  inanimate  parch- 
ment which  constituted  the  House  or  shell  in 
which  the  vital  organism  called  the  Government 
of  South  Carolina  lived,  moved,  and  had  its  be- 
ing. 

As  well  tell  me  that  the  body  lives  when  the 
spirit  has  departed,  as  to  make  me  believe  that  a 
mere  inanimate  frame  work   of  a  Government 


can  survive  after  its  soul  has  been  politically 
damned  for  the  blackest  of  treason. 

But,  again,  Mr.  Hendricks  says :  "A.  State 
Constitution  is  the  bond  of  its  organization ;  not 
only  the  bond  of  political  organization  in  the 
State,  but  to  some  extent  the  bond  that  holds  it 
to  the  Federal  Union.  I  do  not  clearly  under- 
stand (continues  the  Senator)  how  a  State  can  be 
in  the  Union  without  a  State  Government.  I  do 
understand  that  if  a  State  should  cease  to  have  a 
Government,  (if  I  may  so  express  what  seems  to 
be  a  paradox,)  that  the  people  would  still  be 
under  the  law  and  authority  of  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment to  the  extent  of  the  jurisdiction  of  that 
Government.  But,  sir,  a  State  to  be  a  State  in 
the  Union  must  be  a  political  organization." 

The  words  "political  organization"  are  here 
used  by  Mr.  Hendricks  not  to  signify  a  Govern- 
ment in  actual  operation  under  a  constitution, 
but  to  signify  the  constitution  itself.  For  immedi- 
ately afterward  he  says:  "Then,  ,sir,*  when  a 
State  constitution  is  once  formed,  and  the  State 
under  that  constitution  is  admitted  into  the 
Union,  that  State  organization  is  not  a  separate 
and  independent  thing,  but  in  its  organization 
becomes  a  part  of  the  Federal  Union.  The  con- 
stitution of  the  State,  when  the  state  has  been 
thus  admitted,  becomes  a  part  of  the  National  Union 
and  compact^  and  I  deny  that  the  people  of  that 
State  have  a  right  to  destroy  their  State  Govern- 
ment and  thus  cease  to  be  within  the  Union.  I 
deny  that  a  Convention  of  the  people,  that  the 
Legislature  of  the  State,  or  any  assemblage  of  the 
people  whatever,  can  voluntarily  terminate  the  ex- 
istence of  a  State  Government,  and  thus  cut  off 
their  connection  with  the  Federal  Union.  That 
in  my  judgment,  can  only  be  accomplished  with 
the  consent  of  all  the  States.  Take  the  case  of 
Louisiana.  The  people  formed  her  State  Gov- 
ernment; under  that  Government  and  Constitu- 
tion she  was  admitted  into  the  Union.  Is  that 
Constitution  of  hers,  (subject  to  her  amendment 
and  her  modification  of  course,)  not  a  part  of  the 
Federal  system  when  she  is  thus  admitted;  and 
is  it  possible  that  that  bond  of  society,  that  means 
of  political  organization  can  cease  to  exist,  and 
that  there  is  no  longer  any  State  of  Louisiana?" 

I  have  made  this  lengthy  quotation  from  Mr. 
Hendricks'  last  speech  so  that  his  position  may  be 
fairly  stated ;  so  that  you  may  not  misunderstand, 
and  that  I  may  not  misrepresent  him  by  making 
a  partial  extract. 

He  says  that  he  "  does  not  very  clearly  under- 
stand how  a  State  can  be  in  the  Union  without  a 
State  government,"  here  again  using  the  word 
Government  not  to  signify  a  legislature,  an  exec- 
utive, and  a  judiciary,  operation  under  a  Constitu- 
tion, but  to  mean  simply  a  Constitution. 

A  State  certainly  cannot  be  a  State  in  the  Union 
complete  and  perfect  in  all  its  parts  without  hav- 
ing both  a  Constitution  and  an  organized  govern- 
ment in  actual  existence,  porforming  its  func- 
tions under  that  Constitution.  But  if  we  can 
understand  how  a  State  may  be  a  State  in  the 
Union,  and  be  in  a  condition  of  anarchy  for  the 
want  of  all  existing  machinery  by  which  laws  can 
be  enacted  executed  and  administered,  can  we 
not  as  easily  understand  how  this  anarchy  may 
have  gone  one  step  farther  and  left  the  State  not 
only  without  a  governmental  organization,  but 
also  without  a  Constitution  ? 


20 


A  State  in  the^Jnion  without  an  organized  gov- 
'ernment,  in  a  condition  td.  perform  its  proper 
functions  is  just  as  valuable  practically  to  the  peo- 
ple of  the  State  and  of  the  Union  without  a 
Constitution  as  with  it.  A  State  Constitution 
without  a  government  organized  and  in  operation 
to  carry  out  its  provisions  is  of  no  more  value 
than  is  faith  without  works,  which  we  are  assured 
on  the  highest  authority,  'is  dead  being   alone.*' 

But  Senator  Hendricks  says,  ''I  do  understand 
that  if  a  State  should  cease  to  have  a  government 
(if  I  may  express  what  seems  to  be  a  paradox), 
the  people  would  still  be  under  the  law  and 
authority  of  the  Federal  Government  to  th<^  ex- 
tent of  the  jurisdiction  of  that  government  '•' 
'•But,  sir,"  continued  he,  "a  State  in  the  Union 
must  have  a  political  organization." 

Is  it  not  as  much  of  a  seeming  paradox  that  a 
State  should  cease  to  have  a  legislature,  an  exec- 
utive and  a  judiciary ,  and  still  be  a  State,  as  it  is 
to  conceive  of  a  State  without  a  Constitution  ? 
But  Mr.  Hendricks  assures  us  that  a  State  to  be 
a  State  in  the  Union  must  have  a  political  organ- 
ization. If  he  meant  by  this  that  a  State  must 
have  an  organized  government  under  a  Constitu- 
tion to  be  a  State  in  the  Union,  then  manifestly 
the  rebel  States  during  the  war  had  no  political 
organizations  under  the  State  Constitutions  ex- 
cept such  as  were  rebel  through  and  through,  and 
bending  all  the  power  of  these  State  organizations 
to  tho  purpose  of  destroying  the  government, 
and  dismembering  the  nation.  If  this  is  what  he 
means,  the  result  of  the  logic  is  that  a  rebel  leg- 
islature, a  rebel  executive,  and  a  rebel  judiciary, 
are  a  better  bond  of  union  than  no  legislature, 
no  executive,  and  no  judiciary  at  all.  Is  not  that 
another  seeming  paradox  ? 

But  suppose  when  it  is  said  that  a  State  to  be 
a  State  in  the  Unioh,  must  have  a  political  organ- 
ization, an  organized  government," under  a  Con- 
stitution, is  not  meant,  but  simply  a  Constitution 
or  framework  of  government.  Then  I  say  this 
is  a  mere  "assertion  ;  and  I  ask  the  Senator  why 
if  a  State  may  be  a  State  in  the  Union  without  a 
legislature,  an  executive  or  judiciary,  it  may  not 
be  a  State  in  the  Union  without  a  Constitution  ? 

The  Senator  gives  his  reasons  in  the  extract 
already  quoted,  and  in  doing  so  shows  that  he  has 
progressed  so  far  in  his  eduoation  as  to  propound 
an  entirely  new  theory — one  which  Madison. 
Hamilton,  Jay,  Marshall,  Story  and  Webster 
never  dreamed  of.  That  theory  is  that  a  State 
Constitution  is  not  only  the  bond  of  political 
organization  in  the  State,  but  to  some  extent  the 
bond  that  binds  it  to  the  Federal  Union.  That 
the  Constitution  of  a  Staterwhen  the  State  has 
been  admitted  into  the  Union,  "becomes  a  part 
of  the  National  Union  and  compact,"  and,  there- 
fore, while  the  State  may  amend  or  modify  its 
Constitution,  it  cannot  'abrogate  or  destroy  it,  I 
deny  this  whole  theory.  I  deny  that  the  Constir 
tution  of  any  State  in  the  Union  ever  was  a  part 
of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  If  our 
government  is  formed  upon  a  compact  at  all,  (a 
question  about  which  jurists  and  statesmen  have 
differed,)  that  compact  is  contained  in  the  Conr 
stitution  of  the  United  States  and  nowhere  else. 
According  to  the  theory  I  am  now  combatting  a 
State  Constitution  becomes,  by  admission  of  the 
State,  a  part  and  portion  of  the  compact — that  is, 
a  part  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States; 


and  i  .ate,  whilst  it  cannot  destroy   its 

Constitution  and  thereby  destroy  the  compact, 
and  cease  to  tie  within  the  Union,  still  may  amend 
its  Constitution  and  thereby  amendthe  National 
compact  or  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 
Was  ever  such  a  theory  of  government  broached 
before?  A  single  Stale  amend  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States!  Amend  the  compact  under 
which  the  Nation  exists  ! 

In  the  year  1816  the  people  of  the  Territory  of 
Indiana,  in  pursuance  of  an  enabling  act  of  Con- 
gress, called  a  Constitutional  Convention.  That 
Convention  framed  the  Constitution  under  which 
our  State  was  admitted  into  the  Union.  The  lan- 
guage of  the  preamble  of  that  Constitution  was 
as  follows,  viz : 

"We,  the  representatives  of  the  people  of  the 
Territory  of  Indiana."  &&,  <fcc.,'  "do  ordain  and 
establish  the  following  Constitution  or  form  of 
government,"  kc. 

In  1849  the  people  of  the  State  called  another 
Constitutional  Convention  to  ilamend.  cdte?  or  revise' 
the  Constitution  of  1816,  and  that  Convention 
met  in  1850,  (Mr.  Hendricks  being  a  member  of 
it,)  and  made  the  present  Constitution  of  the 
State,  which  was  in  1851,  ratified  by  the  people. 

This  Constitution,  which  Mr.  Hendricks  assist- 
ed to  make,  does  not  purport  to  be,  and  in(  no 
proper  sense  is.  an  amendment  of  the  old  one ; 
but  it  purports  to  be,  and  essentially  is,  a  new 
instrument.  The  language  is  not  the  language  of 
amendment,  but  the  language  of  creation.  It 
says  in  the  preamble,- "We,  the  people  of  the 
State  of  Indiana,"  &c.,  &c,  "do  ordain  this  Con- 
stitution." The  schedule  to  the  new  Constitution 
of  1851,  says,  "this  Constitution,  if  adopted,  shall 
take  effect  on  the  first  day  of  November,  1851, 
and  shall  supercede  the  Constitution  of  1S15." 

I  adduce  these  facts  to  show  that  the  power  to 
amend  includes  the  power  to  abrogate,  according 
to  the  decision  of  the  Convention  of  1850,  of 
which  Mr.  Hendricks  was  a  member,  and  in  whose 
action  he  concurred.  With  these  facts  before  us, 
it  follows  that  the  State,  in  1851,  stole  a  march 
on  the  Nation  and  quietly  slipped  out  or  with- 
drew the  bond  or  ligament  which  bound  it  to  the 
Union,  and  substituted,  or  slipped  in  the  place  of 
it,  a  new  "bond  or  ligament,  intended  to  perform 
the  same  office  without  so  much  as  saying  to 
Uncle  Samuel  "by  your  leave,  sir,"  or,  indeed, 
without  the  old  gentleman  being  aware  that  the 
operation  iwas  being  performed. 

The  doctrine  that  the  people  of  a  State  cannot 
in  their  sovereign  capacitp,.  entirely  abrogate  a 
Constitution,  which  is  wholly  the  work  of  their 
own  hands,  whilst  they  may  amend  it;  and  the 
other  doctrine  that  the  abrogation  of  a  State 
Constitution  would  be  a  dissolution  of  the  Union, 
are  both  utterly  without  foundation  in  either 
reason  or  authority.  The  Constitution  of  a  State 
is  no  less  the  creature  of  the  people  of  the  State, 
than  is  tl*e  Legislature,  the  Executive,  and  the 
Judiciary,  and,  as  a  question  of  power,  if  the  one 
may  be  destroyed,  so  may  be  the  other,  and  still 
the  Union  be  unimpaired,  and  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  United  States  over  the  Territory  and  people 
of  that  State  be  as  complete  as  if  no  such  wicked 
and  foolish  act  had  been  committed. 

And  hero  allow  me  to  notice  the  oft  repeated 
assertion  that  those  who  acknowledge  the  power 
of  the  people  of  a  State  to  destroy  its  govern- 


21 


ment,  including  not  only  its  organization  of  the 
several  departments  of  government,  but  also. its 
constitution  upon  which  the  organization  is  based, 
thereby  concede  the  power  of  secession:  The 
advocate  of  secession  in  the  South  fought  for  no 
such  abstraction  as  that  involved  in  the  question 
whether  a  State  without  a  State  constitution  and 
government  was  a  State  in  the  Union,  or  no*  State 
at  all;  but  on  the  contrary,  they  battled  for  the 
right  and  the  power  to  withdraw  by  their  own 
State  action,  their  territory  and  people  from  all 
obligations  of  allegiance  to  the  govesmiient  and 
people  of  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Hendricks  says  he  does  understand  that  if 
a  State  should  cease  to  have  a  government,  that 
its  people  would  still  be  under  the  law  and 
authority  of  the  Federal  Government  to  the 
extent  of  the  jurisdiction  of  that  government. 

I  respectfully  submit  that  this  is  not  the  sort  of 
dissolution  of  the  Union,  for  the  achievement  of 
which  the  rebellion  was  inaugurated  and  prosecu- 
ted; and  that  a  person  may  well  believe  that  a 
State  government  may  be  destroyed  without  be- 
coming a:  secessionist.  I  believe  that  the  govern- 
ments of  the  revolted  States  have  been  utterly 
destroyed,  and  yet  I  designate  them  as  States  in 
the  Union.  During  the  war  they  were  States  in 
the'  Union,  but  at  the  same  time,  States  in  rebel- 
lion. Since  the  close  of  the  war  they  are  States 
in  the  Union  but  by  reason  of  the  war,  States  in 
anarchy,  except  so  far  as  order  has  been  pre- 
served by  the  paramount  authority  of  the  United 
States.  But  if  any  body  else  shall  contend  that 
they  are  reduced  to  the  condition  of  territories,  \ 
shall  not  quarrel  with  them  about  names  ;  because 
we  both  agree  that  they  did  not  succeed,  in  throw- 
ing off  their  allegiance  to  the  United  States,  and 
are  still  completely  within,  and  subject  to  the  law 
making  power  of  the  nation,  to  the  extent  of  its 
jurisdiction  under  the  Constitution. 

A  new  exposition  of  the  guarantee  clause  of 
the  constitution  is  also  resorted  to  by  the  Demo- 
cratic party  in  its  efforts  to  exalt  rebellion,  and 
to  restore  political  power  to  the  hands  of  the  men 
who  for  four  years  waged  a  most  atrocious  war 
against  the  government  to  destroy  it. 

The  entire-  section  in  which  the  guarantee 
clause  is  found,  contains  three'  distinct  clauses, 
each  of  which  imposes  a  distinct  duty  on  the 
United  States.     It  reads  as  follows  : 

"The  United  States  shall  guarantee  to  every 
State  in  this  Union' a  republican  form  of  govern-, 
ment;  and  shall  protect  each  of  them  against  in- 
vasion ;  and  on  application  of  the  legislature  or  of 
the  executive,  (when  the  legislature  cannot  be 
convened.)  from  domestic  violence." 

In  giving  an  exposition  of  this  section,  in  his 
late  speech  in  the  Senate,  Mr.  Hendricks  assumes 
these  positions. 

1st.  That  the  duty  of  executing  the  guarantea 
contained  in  the  first  clause,  rests  upon  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States.  * 

2d.  That  the  clause  imposing  this  duty  is  ad- 
dressed to  each  department  of  the  government, 
and  if  the  act  to  be  done  to  enforce  the  guaran- 
tee is  judicial,  the  duty  is  upon  the  judiciary;  if 
a  legislative  act,  then  it  is  upon  the  legislative 
department,  and  if  it  be  an  executive  act,  then 
the  duty  rests  upon  the  executive. 

He  treats  the  three  distinct  clauses  of  the  sec- 
tion as  one  entire  clause  imposing  a  single  duty, 


and  says  the  clause  itself  contemplates  existing 
State  governments,  having  a  legislature,  and  an 
executive  department,  and  that  it  simpiy  imposes 
the  duty  on  the  government  of  the  United  States 
to  protect,  maintain  and  defend  that  existing 
republican  form  of  government. 

I  admit  that  the  duty  of  enforcing  the  entire 
section  rests. upon  the  government  of  the  United 
States,  but  deny  that  it  is  addressed  to  each  de- 
partment of  the  government,  for  the  simple  rea- 
son that  neither  of  these  duties  can  be  per- 
formed without  the  exercise  of  legislative  powers. 

True,  Congress  may,  (as  il  has  in  relation  to 
the  third  clause.)  empower  the  President  to  per- 
form the  duty,  but  in  doing  sO  he  acts  not  by 
virtue  of  authority,  granted  him  by  the  constitu- 
tion, but  in  execution  of  the  law  of  Congress. 

Let  us  test  the  doctrine,  that,  the  duty  of 
guaranteeing  a  republican  form  of  government 
is  addressod  to  each  of  the  three  departments  of 
the  government.  * 

If  the  doctrine  is  true,  of  course  each  separate 
department  must  decide  and  act  for  itself.  Now 
suppose  there  are  two,  or  if  you  please,  three, 
rival  governments  in  a  State,  each  claiming  to  be 
the  legitimate  government  of  that  State.  The' 
clause  in  that  case,  will  or  may,  according  to  this 
doctrine,  speak  to  each  department  of  the  gene- 
ral government  separately,  and  so  speaking;  it 
may  require  of  the  President  a  duty,  executive 
in  is  character,  and,  in  the  performance  of  his 
duty,  he  decides  that  government  "A,"  if  you 
please,  is  the  true  government ;  then,  the  clause 
speaks  to  Congress,  requiring  it  to  perform  a  leg- 
islative act  as  to  the  same  question,  and  Congress 
decides  that  government  "B"  is  the  legitimate 
one;  then  again,  the  same  clause  speaks  to  the 
Supreme  Court  to  perform  a  judicial  duty  as  to 
the  same  matter,  and  it  decides  that  government 
i;C."  is  the  real  "Simon  pure"  old  Dr.  Jacob 
Townsend. 

Here  you  have  three  conflicting  decisions  made 
by  the  three  separate  departments  of  the  govern- 
ment, as  to  the  same  matter,  and  for  ought  that 
Mr.  Hendricks  has  shown  us,  no  possible  means 
of  reconciling  this  "irrepressible  conflict." 

You  have  Congress,  for  instance,  admitting 
Senators  elected  by  a  legislature  that  is  repudia- 
ted by  the  President  and  the  Supreme  Court; 
and  you  have  the  Supreme  Court  recognizing 
courts  as  legitimate  courts  of  the  State,  the 
judges  of  which,  are  elected  by  a  legislature 
which  Congress  and  the  President  both  repudi- 
ate, and  you  have  the  President  recognizing  as 
Governor  of  the  State  a  person  whom  Congress 
and  the  judiciary  denounce  as  a  usurper. 

But  our  Senator  has  saved  me  Jhe  trouble  of 
refuting  this  theory,  by  doing  the  work  himself. 
In  another  part  of  his  speeeh  in  commenting 
upon  the  Rhode  Island  case  (Luther  i*  Broden 
and  others,  7th  Howard,  page  1,)  he  saj^s  that 
case  "establishes  this  proposition;  that  the  Ex- 
ecutive of  the  United  States  having  recognized  a 
State  government,  the  State  having  once  been 
in  the'  Union,  that  recognition  is  binding  upon 
the  judiciary." 

Now,  although  the  court  in  that  case  estab- 
lished no  such  proposition,  let  us  for  the  sake  of 
the  argumsnt  suppose  it  did,  and  what  is  the 
effect  of  that  doctrine  upon  the  other  position 
that  this  section  of  the  Constitution  is  addressed 


A  State  in  the^Jnion- without  an  organized  gov- 
'  eminent,  in  a  condition  to.  perform  its  proper 
functions  is  just  as  valuable  practically  to  the  peo- 
ple of  the  State  and  of  the  Union  without  a 
Constitution  as  with  it.  A  State  Constitution 
without  a  government  organized  and  in  operation 
to  carry  out  its  provisions  is  of  no  more  value 
than  is  faith  without  works,  which  wearo  assured 
on  the  highest  authority,  "is  dead  being   alone/' 

But  Senator  Hendricks  says,  ''I  do  understand 
that  if  a  State  should  cease  to  have  a  government 
(if  I  may  express  what  seems  to  be  a  paradox), 
the  people  would  still  be  under  the  law  and 
authority  of  the  Federal  Government  to  th<^  ex- 
tent of  the  jurisdiction  of  that  government" 
"But,  sir,"  continued  he,  "a  State  in  the  Union 
must  have  a  political  organization." 

Is  it  not  as  much  of  a  seeming  paradox  that  a 
State  should  cease  to  have  a  legislature,  an  exec- 
utive and  a  judiciary,  and  still  be  a  State,  as  it  is 
to  conceive  of  a  State  without  a  Constitution  ? 
But  Mr.  Hendricks  assures  us  that  a  State  to  be 
a  State  in  the  Union  must  have  a  political  organ- 
ization. If  he  meant  by  this  that  a  State  must 
have  an  organized  government  under  a  Constitu- 
tion to  be  a  State  in  the  Union,  then  manifestly 
the  rebel  States  during  the  war  had  no  political 
organizations  under  the  State  Constitutions  ex- 
cept such  as  were  rebel  through  and  through,  and 
bending  all  the  power  of  these  State  organizations 
to  tha  purpose  of  destroying  the  government, 
and  dismembering  the  nation.  If  this  is  what  he 
means,  the  result  of  the  logic  is  that  a  rebel  leg- 
islature, a  rebel  executive,  and  a  rebel  judiciary, 
are  a  better  bond  of  union  than  no  legislature, 
no  executive,  and  no  judiciary  at  all.  Is  not  that 
another  seeming  paradox  ? 

But  suppose  when  it  is  said  that  a  State  to  be 
a  State  in  the  Unioti,  must  have  a  political  organ- 
ization, an  organized  government,  under  a  Con- 
stitution, is  not  meant,  but  simply  a  Constitution 
or  framework  of  government.  Then  I  say  this 
is  a  mere  "assertion  ;  and  I  ask  the  Senator  why 
if  a  State  may  be  a  State  in  the  Union  without  a 
legislature,  an  executive  or  judiciary,  it  may  not 
be  a  State  in  the  Union  without  a  Constitution  ? 

The  Senator  gives  his  reasons  in  the  extract 
already  quoted,  and  in  doing  so  shows  that  he  has 
progressed  so  far  in  his  eduoation  as  to  propound 
an  entirely  new  theory — one  which  Madison. 
Hamilton,  Jay,  Marshall,  Story  and  Webster 
never  dreamed  of.  That  theory  is  that  a  State 
Constitution  is  not  only  the  bond  of  political 
organization  in  the  State,  but  to  some  extent  the 
bond  that  binds  it  to  the  Federal  Union.  That 
the  Constitution  of  a  Staterwhen  the  State  has 
been  admitted  into  the  Union,  "becomes  a  part 
of  the  National  Union  and  compact,"  and,  there- 
fore, while  the  State  may  amend  or  modify  its 
Constitution,  it  cannot  abrogate  or  destroy  it.  I 
deny  this  whole  theory.  I  deny  that  the  Constir 
tution  of  any  State  in  the  Union  ever  was  a  part 
of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  If  our 
government  is  formed  upon  a  compact  at  all,  (a 
question  about  which  jurists  and  statesmen  have 
differed,)  that  compact  is  contained  in  the  Com 
stitution  of  the  United  States  and  nowhere  else. 
According  to  the  theory  I  am  now  combatting  a 
State  Constitution  becomes,  by  admission  of  the 
State,  a  part  and  portion  of  the  compact — that  is, 
a  part  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States; 


and  i  ;ate,  whilst  it  cannot  destroy   its 

Constitution  and  thereby  destroy  the'  compact, 
and  cease  to  b*e  within  the  Union,  still  may  amend 
its  Constitution  and  thereby  amend- the  National 
compact  or  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 
Was  ever  such  a  theory  of  government  broached 
before?  A  single  State  amend  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  I  Amend  the  compact  under 
which  the  Nation  exists  ! 

In  the  year  1816  the  people  of  the  Territory  of 
Indiana,  in  pursuance  of  an  enabling  act  of  Con- 
gress, called  a  Constitutional  Convention.  That 
Convention  framed  the  Constitution  under  which 
our  State  w^s  admitted  into  the  Union.  The  lan- 
guage of  the  preamble  of  that  Constitution  was 
as  follows,  viz: 

"We,  the  representatives  of  the  people  of  the 
Territory  of  Indiana,''  &&,-&c;,  "  do  ordain  and 
establish  the  following  Constitution  or  form  of 
government."  etc. 

In  1849  the  people  of  the  State  called  another 
Constitutional  Convention  to  "amend,  alter  or  revise' 
the  Constitution  of  1S16,  and  that  Convention 
met  in  1850,  (Mr.  Hendricks  being  a  member  of 
it,)  and  made  the  present  Constitution  of  the 
State,  which  was  in  1851,  ratified  by  the  people. 

This  Constitution,  which  Mr.  Hendricks  assist- 
ed to  make,  does  not  purport  to  be,  and  in*  no 
proper  sense  is,  an  amendment  of  the  old  one; 
but  it  purports  to  be,  and  essentially  is,  a  new 
instrument.  The  language  is  not  the  language  of 
amendment,  but  the  language  of  creation.  It 
says  in  the  preamble,  "We,  the  people  of  the 
State  of  Indiana,"  &c,  &c,  "do  ordain  this  Con- 
stitution." The  schedule  to  the  new  Constitution 
of  1851,  says,  "this  Constitution,  if  adopted,  shall 
take  effect  on  the  first  day  of  November,  1851, 
and  shall  supercede  the  Constitution  of  lS'16." 

I  adduce  these  facts  to  show  that  the  power  to 
amend  includes  the  power  to  abrogate,  according 
to  the  decision  of  the  Convention  of  1850,  of 
which  Mr.  Hendricks  was  a  member,  and  in  whose 
action  he  concurred.  With  these  facts  before  us, 
it  follows  that  the  State,  in  1851,  stole  a  march 
on  the  Nation  and  quietly  slipped  out  or  with- 
drew the  bond  or  ligament  which  bound  it  to  the 
Union,  and  substituted,  or  slipped  in  the  place  of 
it,  a  new  bond  or  ligament,  intended  to  perform 
the  same  office  without  so  much  as  saying  to 
Uncle  Samuel  "by  your  leave,  sir,"  or,  indeed, 
without  the  old  gentleman  being  aware  that  the 
operation :  was  being  performed. 

The  doctrine  that  the  people  of  a  State  cannot 
in  their  sovereign  capacitp,.  entirely  abrogate  a 
Constitution,  which  is  wholly  the  work  of  their 
own  hands,  whilst  they  may  amend  it;  and  the 
other  doctrine  that  the  abrogation  of  a  State 
Constitution  would  be  a  dissolution  of  the  Union, 
are  both  utterly  without  foundation  in  either 
reason  or  authority.  The  Constitution  of  a  State 
is  no  less  the  creature  of  the  people  of  the  State, 
than  is  tl*e  Legislature,  the  Executive,  and  the 
Judiciary,  and,  as  a  question  of  power,  if  the  one 
may  be  destroyed,  so  may  be  the  other,  and  still 
the  Union  be  unimpaired,  and  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  United  States  over  the  Territory  and  people 
of  that  State  be  as  complete  as  if  no  such  wicked 
and  foolish  act  had  been  committed. 

And  'here  allow  me  to  notice  the  oft  repeated 
assertion  that  those  who  acknowledge  the  power 
of  the  people  of  a  State  to  destroy  its  govern- 


21 


ment,  including  not  only  its  organization  of  the 
several  departments  of  government,  but  also  its 
constitution  upon  which  the  organization  is  based, 
thereby  concede  the  power  of  secession:  The 
advocate  of  secession  in  the  South  fought  for  no 
such  abstraction  as  that  involved  in  the  question 
whether  a  State  without  a  State  constitution  and 
government  was  a  State  in  the  Union,  or  no*  State 
at  all ;  but  on  the  contrary,  they  battled  for  the 
right  and  the  power  to  withdraw  by  their  own 
State  action,  their  territory  and  people  from  all 
obligations  of  allegiance  to  the  government  and 
people  of  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Hendricks  says  he  does  understand  that  if 
a  State  should  cease  to  have  a  government,  that 
its  people  would  still  be  under  the  law  and 
authority  of  the  Federal  Government  to  the 
extent  of  the  jurisdiction  of  that  government. 

I  respectfully  submit  that  this  is  not  the  sort  of 
dissolution  of  the  Union,  for  the  achievement  of 
which  the  rebellion  was  inaugurated  and  prosecu- 
ted; and  that  a  person  may  well  believe  that  a 
State  government  may  be  destroyed  without  be- 
coming a:  secessionist.  I  believe  that  the  govern- 
ments of  the  revolted  States  have  been  utterly 
destroyed,  and  yet  I  designate  them  as  States  in 
the  Union.  During  the  war  they  were  States  in 
the'  Unioai,  but  at  the  same  time,  States  in  rebel- 
lion. Since  the  close  of  the  war  they  are  States 
in  the  Union  but  by  reason  of  the  war,  States  in 
anarchy,  except  so  far  as  order  has  been  pre- 
served by  the  paramount  authority  of  the  United 
States.  But  if  any  body  else  shall  contend  that 
they  are  reduced  to  the  condition  of  territories,  *T 
shall  not  quarrel  with  them  about  names  ;  because 
we  both  agree  that  they  did  not  succeed  in  throw- 
ing off  their  allegiance  to  the  United  States,  and 
are  still  completely  within,  and  subject  to  the  law 
making  power  of  the  nation,  to  the  extent  of  its 
jurisdiction  under  the  Constitution. 

A  new  exposition  of  the  guarantee  clause  of 
the  constitution  is  also  resorted  to  by  the  Demo- 
cratic pal-ty  in  its  efforts  to  exalt  rebellion,  and 
to  restore  political  power  to  the  hands  of  the  men 
who  for  four  years  waged  a  most  atrocious  war 
against  the  government  to  destroy  it. 

The  entire-  section  in  which  the  guarantee 
clause  is  found,  contains  three*  distinct  clauses, 
each  of  which  imposes  a  distinct  duty  on  the 
United  States.     It  reads  as  follows  : 

"The  United  States  shall  guarantee  to  every 
State  in  this  Union*  a  republican  form  of  govern-, 
ment;  and  shall  protect  each  of  them  against  in- 
vasion ;  and  on  application  of  the  legislature  or  of 
the  executive,  (when  the  legislature  cannot  be 
convened.)  from  domestic  violence." 

In  giving  an  exposition  of  this  section,  in  his 
late  speech  in  the  Senate,  Mr.  Hendricks  assumes 
these  positions. 

1st.  That  the  duty  of  executing  the  guarantee, 
contained  in  the  first  clause,  rests  upon  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States.  • 

2d.  That  the  clause  imposing  this  duty  is  ad- 
dressed to  each  department  of  the  government, 
and  if  the  act  to  be  done  to  enforce  the  guaran- 
tee is  judicial,  the  duty  is  upon  the  judiciary;  if 
a  legislative  act,  then  it  is  upon  the  legislative 
department,  and  if  it  be  an  executive  act,  then 
the  duty  rests  upon  the  executive. 

He  treats  the  three  distinct  clauses  of  the  sec- 
ti©n  as  one  entire  clause  imposing  a  single  duty, 


and  says  the  clause  itself  contemplates  exisii:v. 
State  governments,  having  a  legislature,  and  an 
executive  department,  and  that  it  simpiy  imposes 
the  duty  on  the  government  of  the  United  States 
to  protect,  maintain  and  defend  that  existing 
republican  form  o-f  government. 

I  admit  that  the  duty  of  enforcing  the  entire 
section  rests  upon  the  government  of  the  United 
States,  but  deny  that  it  is  addressed  to  each  de- 
partment of  the  government,  for  the  simple  rea- 
son that  neither  of  these  duties  can  be  per- 
formed without  the  exercise  of  legislative  powers. 

True,  Congress  may,  (as  il  has  in  relation  to 
the  third  clause.)  empower  the  President  to  per- 
form the  duty,  but  in  doing  so  he  acts  not  by 
virtue  of  authority,  granted  him  by  the  constitu- 
tion, but  in  execution  of  the  law  of  Congress. 

Let  us  test  the  doctrine,  that,  the  duty  of 
guaranteeing  a  republican  form  of  government 
is  addressod  to  each  of  the  three  departments  of 
the  government.  * 

If  the  doctrine  is  true,  of  course  each  separate 
department  must  decide  and  act  for  itself.  Now 
suppose  there  are  two,  or  if  you  please,  three, 
rival  governments  in  a  State,  each  claiming  to  be 
the  legitimate  government  of  that  State.  The' 
clause  in  that  case,  will  or  may,  according  to  this 
doctrine,  speak  to  each  department  of  the  gene- 
ral government  separately,  and  so  speaking;  it 
may  require  of  the  President  a  duty,  executive 
in  is  character,  and,  in  the  performance  of  his 
duty,  he  decides  that  governmeut  "A,"  if  you 
please,  is  the  true  government;  then,  the  clause 
speaks  to,  Congress,  requiring  it  to  perform  a  leg- 
islative act  as  to  the  same  question,  and  Congress 
decides  that  government  "B"  is  the  legitimate 
one;  then  again,  the  same  clause  speaks  to  the 
Supreme  Court  to  perform  a  judicial  duty  as  to 
the  same  matter,  and  it  decides  that  government 
"G."  is  the  real  "Simon  pure"  old  Dr.  Jacob 
Townsend. 

Here  you  have  three  conflicting  decisions  made 
by  the  three  separate  departments  of  the  govern- 
ment, as  to  the  same  matter,  and  for  ought  that 
Mr.  Hendricks  has  shown  us,  no  possible  means 
of  reconciling  this  "irrepressible  conflict." 

You  have  Congress,  for  instance,  admitting 
Senators  elected  by  a  legislature  that  is  repudia- 
ted by  the  President  and  the  Supreme  Court; 
and  you  have  the  Supreme  Court  recognizing 
courts  as  legitimate  courts  of  the  State,  the 
judges  of  which,  are  elected  by  a  legislature 
which  Congress  and  the  President  both  repudi- 
ate, and  you  have  the  President  recognizing  as 
Governor  of  the  State  a  person  whom  Congress 
and  the  judiciary  denounce  as  a  usurper. 

But  our  Senator  has  saved  me  Jthe  trouble  of 
refuting  this  theory,  by  doing  the  work  himself. 
In  another  part  of  his  speeeh  in  commenting 
upon  the  Rhode  Island  case  (Luther  vs.  Broden 
and  others,  7th  Howard,  page  1,)  he  says  that 
case  "establishes  this  proposition;  that  the  Ex- 
ecutive of  the  United  States  having  recognized  a 
State  government,  the  State  having  once  been 
in  the"  Union,  that  recognition  is  binding  upon 
the  judiciary." 

Now,  although  the  court  in  that  case  estab- 
lished no  such  proposition,  let  us  for  the  sake  of 
the  argumsnt  suppose  it  did,  and  what  is  the 
effect  of  that  doctrine  upon  the  other  position 
that  this  section  of  the  Constitution  is  addressed 


99 


to  each  department  of  the  Government.  Is  it 
not  manifestly  absurd  to  say  that  the  language 
speaks  to  each  department,  and  yet  that  the  de- 
cision of  the  Executive  department  is  conclusive 
on  the  courts*.  Suppose  the  courts  should  first 
decide  one  way  and  the  President  afterward 
make  a  contrary  decision,  then  we  should  have 
the  spectacle  of  the  President  overruling  the 
Supreme  Court. 

But  Mr.  Hendn<sks  does  not  state  the  doctrine 
established  in  the  Rhode  Island  case  correctly. 
In  that  case  there  were  two  rival  Governments, 
each  claiming  to  be  tibe  legitimate  government  of 
tbje  State  of  Rhode  Island.  One  was  the  old 
government  existing  at  the  commencement  of  the 
Revolutionary  war,  and  known  as  the  "  Charter 
■  Government,"  and  the  other  a  new  Government, 
known  as  the  Dorr  Government."  An  pppeal 
was  about  to  be  made  to  the  sword  to  settle  the 
question  which  was  legitimate.  Governor  King, 
the  acting  Governor  under  the  old  Government 
applied  to  the  President  for  aid  to  protect  the 
State  from  domestic  violence  threatened  by  the 
Dorr  party,  not  because  the  Constitution  itself 
gave  the  President  power  to  grant  such  aid,  but 
•because  Congress,  by  an  act  passed  in  1795,  had 
expressly  authorized  and  empowered  the  Presi- 
dent "in  case  of  an  insurrection  in  any  State 
against  the  government  thereof,  on  application  of 
the  Legislature  of  such  State,  or  of  the  Execu- 
tive, (when  the  legislature  cannot  be  convened) 
to  call  forth  such  number  of  the  militia  of  any 
other  State  or  States  as  might  be  applied  for,  or 
as  the  President  might  judge  sufficient  to  sup 
press  such  insurrection." 

The  President  recognized  this  call,  and  in 
doing  so  recognized  Governor  King  as  the  legiti- 
mate Governor  of  Rhode  Island.  The  question 
was  fairly  presented  to  the  Supreme  Court  in  this 
case  whether  the  "Charter"  Government  or  the 
Dorr  Government  was  the  legitimate  Government 
of  the  State  of  Rhode  Island. 

Now  the  Court  had  to  decide  whether  that  ques- 
tion was  a  political  question  or  a  judicial  question. 
If  it  was  a  judicial  question,  the  court  itself  was 
bound  to  decide  it  without  reference  to  what  any 
other  department  had  decided  or  might  decide. 

The  Court  in  terms  decided  that  it  was  a  politi- 
cal question  and  not  a  judicial  question  ;  and  that 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  Statesa  in  the  sec- 
tion containing  the  guarantee  clause,  had  placed 
the  power  to  decide  all  such  questions  between 
rival  State  governments  in  the  hands  of  the  po- 
litical department,  that  is,  in  the  hands  of  Con- 
gress. But  that  because  Congress  had  passed  the 
act  of  1795,  giving  the  President  the  power  of 
deciding  whetker  the  exigency  had  arisen  upon 
which  the  Government  of  the  United  States  was 
bound  to  interfere,  his  decision  was  conclusive  on 
the  courts. 

The  court  expressly  say  that  Congress  might  if 
they  had  deemed  it  most  advisable  to  do  so,  have 
placed  it  in  the  power  of  a  court  to  decide  when 
the  contingency  had  happened  which  required 
the  Federal  Government  to  interfere.  But  Con- 
gress had  thought  otherwise,  and  had  given  the 
power  to  the  President.  That  he  is  to  act  upon 
the  application  of  the  Legislature  or  Executive 
of  the  State,  and  consequently  he  must  deter- 
mine what  body  of  men  constitute  the  legislature 
and  who  is  Governor,  before  he  can  act.     And 


that  his  decision,  because  Congress  had  given 
him  the  power  to  decide,  was  binding  on  the  Ju- 
diciary. 

I  have  said  that  this  section  contains  three  dis- 
tinct clauses,  each  imposing  a  distinct  duty  on 
the  Government  of  the  United  States.  They  are 
as  follows : 

First.  To  guarantee  to  every  State  in  the  Union 
a  republican  form  of  government. 

Second.  To  protect  each  State  against  invasion. 

Third.  On  application  of  the  legislature  or  Ex- 
ecutive to  psotect  each  State  from  domestic  vio- 
lence. 

I  have  insisted,  too,  that  these  three  distinct 
duties  are  primarily  political  or  legislative  du- 
ties addressed  to  the  political  or  legislative  de- 
partment of  the  Government,  and  can  never, 
under  any  circumstances,  be  performed  by  the 
President,  or  by  the  courts,  except  as  Congress 
shall  give  them  power  to  act.  Let  us  test  this 
by  a  few  questions.  How  is  the  President  or  a 
court  to  protect  a  State  from  invasion  without 
authority  from  Congress  to  act?  Can  the  Presi- 
dent by  virtue  of  his  office  levy  and  subsist 
troops?  Will  the  courts  issue  writs  of  capias 
ad  respondendum  and  arrest  the  invaders?  How 
can  either  of  these  departments  suppress  an  in- 
surrection, or  take  one  step  ■  in  that  direction 
without  an  act  of  Congress  ?  Or  suppose  a  ma- 
jority of  the  people  of  a  State  shall,  by  a  Conven- 
tion duly  called,  abrogate  their  Republican  Con- 
stitution and,  without  violence,  erect  a  monarchy 
on  its  ruins,  in  the  heart  of  a  republic,  can  the 
President,  or  the  Judiciary,  smite  the  bastard 
thing  as  it  deserves  to  be  smitten?  Clearly, 
reason,  as  well  as  authority,  shows  that  all  these 
are  political  duties  which  must  be  performed  by 
Congress,  or  by  its  authority. 

But  again,  look  at  the  position  that  the  duty  of 
guaranteeing  a  republican  form  of  government 
only  applies  to  present  existing  republican  gov- 
ernments. What  would  be  the  result  if  a' State 
should  abrogate  her  Constitution  without  adopt- 
ing another?  Where,  then,  is  your  existing 
State  government?  Does  that  which  destroys 
the  State  government  also  destroy  with  it  the 
duty  of  the  United  States  to  guarantee  to  each 
State  a  government  republic  in  form  ? 

Or  suppose  that  by  repeated  amendments  the 
State  government  is  gradually  but  surely  con- 
verted into  a  monarchy  ?  Would  the  duty  of  the 
United  States  cease  because  the  Very  thing  had  hap- 
pened which  this  clause  was  designed  to  prevent? 

This  is  one  of  the  very  cases  in  which  it  would  be 
the  duty  of  Congress  to  overthrow  such  an  anti- 
American  government. 

Or  suppose  a  State  to  be  without  an  organized 
government,  and  if  you  please,  without  a  Consti- 
tution, does  the  duty  of  the  United  States  to  pro- 
tect it  from  invasion  cease  at  the  very  time  when 
protection  may  be  most  needed? 
'  Mr.  Hendricks  is  mistaken  then,  when  he  says 
that  the  duty  of  guaranteeing  a  republican  form 
of  government  contemplates  an  existing  State 
government,  republican  in  form. 

It  is  true,  as  he  says,  that  Mr.  Madison,  Mr. 
Hamilton,  and  Judge  Story  do  all  teach  that  this 
clause  does  contemplate  a  pre-existing  State 
government,  republican  in  form ;  but  a  pre-exist- 
ing State  government,  republican  in  form,  is  one 
thing,  and  an  existing  State  government,  republi- 


23 


can  in  form,  is  another,  and  a  different  thing.  A 
republican  government  may  have  pre-existed, <pr 
once  existed,  and  may  now  be  supplanted  by  a 
monarchy,  and  that  is  one  of  the  very  cases  in 
which  the  clause  must  be  executed. 

I  now  confidently  submit,  that  I  have  clearly 
established,  that  under  the  law  and  the  facts,  it 
was  the  right  and  the  duty  of  Congress  to  inter- 
vene in  the  restoration  of  the  revolted  States,  by 
overthrowing  the  disloyal  anti-republican  organi-* 
zations  called  into  being  by  the  mandate  of  Mr. 
Johnson,  and  by  providing  the  means  which 
would  enable  the  great  body  of  the  people  of 
those  States  to  re-organize  local  governments  in 
harmony  with  the  government  of  the  United 
States.  I  do  not  propose  to  show  that  the  action 
which  Congress  did  actually  take  to  accomplish 
these  ends  was  right,  constitutional  and  proper, 
for  that  has  baen  so  recently  done  by  Governor 
Morton  in  the  Senate,  with  a  perspicuity  of  style, 
a  purity  of  diction,  and  a  power  of  argument, 
which  it  would  be  a  vain  thing  for  me  to  attempt 
to  imitate.  That  speech  has  never  been  answered, 
for  the  simple  reason  that  it  is  unanswerable. 
The  premises  on  which  he  built  that  grand,  logi- 
cal structure,  are  as  firm  as  the  "  everlasting 
hills,"  and  his  conclusions  are  as  inevitable  as 
one  of  the  demonstrations  of  Euclid.  Long 
may  he  live  an  ornament  to  the.  Senate,  honored 
of  the  nation,  and  the  pride  of  his  State. 

At  the  conclusion  of  his  speech  the  Governor, 
took  his  seat  amid  thunders  of  applause. 

General  Ebenezer  Dumont  being  introduced, 
addressed  the  Convention  as  follows : 

Fellow  Citizens  : — The  late  Democratic  Conven- 
tion adopted  a  resolution  as  a  plank  in  their  plat- 
form expressive  of  the  respect  and  love  they  cher- 
ish towards  the  soldier  who  aided  in  suppressing 
the  rebellion.  I  stepped  into  the  Convention  for 
a  few  moments  before  it  finally  adjourned,  and 
glanced  at  the  crowd  of  men  assembled.  The  first 
man  my  eyes  beheld  was  Jo.  Bingham.  The  next 
one  was  Dr.  Bowles,  and  the  third  man  was  An- 
drew Humphreys.  The  two  former  were  Secreta- 
ries, and  the  latter,  I  believe,  an  officer — perhaps 
a  Vice-President — of  the  Convention;  and  I  was 
told  by  those  better  informed  than  myself  that 
they  were  a  fair  sample  of  a  good  many,  but. of 
how  many,  the  people  will  never  know,  as  they 
took  the  precaution  not  to  publish  the  names  of 
the  delegates.  Let  the  Herald  publish  the  list, 
and  let  the  public  see  who  it  is  that  has  all  at  once 
become  so  patriotic  and  loving  to  the  soldiers. 

I  simply  mention  these  facts  as  I  pass,  that  the 
public  may  judge  how  insincere  is  a  resolution  of 
that  kind,  coming  from  such  a  source,  and  with 
what  animus  it  was  adopted,  and  how  much  faith 
we  may  repose  in  this  new-born  love.  I  turned 
on  my  heel  and  left,  satisfied  with  what  I  had  seen, 
and  convinced  by  what  I  had  heard,  that  the 
heart  of  man  is  deceitful  above  all  things,  and 
desperately  wicked.  "Walk  into  my  parlor,  said 
the  spider  to  the  fly,"  thinking  of  the  resolution, 
and  by  whom  it  was  adopted,  is  the  way  I  explained 
it.  1  chanced  to  mention  this  circumstance  to  a 
Democratic  friend,  who  admitted  that  a  good 
many  disloyal  men  had  crept  into  that  Convention. 
He  explained  that  by  saying  that  it  grew  out  of 
the  fact  that  wherever  there  was  a  disloyal  man  in 


a  county,  he  was  sure  to  be  an  active  politician, 
who  made  a  struggle  for  the  place,  and  got  it. 
But,  said  he,  you  can't  deny  but  what  we  had 
splendid  speakers — an  honor  to  any  age  or  coun- 
try, and  that  we  made  a  bully  ticket. 

Why  it  is  that  the  Democratic  champions  are 
always  so  gifted,  and  their  ticket  so  excellent,  I 
must  explain;  and  in  doing  so,  must  say  that  the 
Democrats  are  not  the  only  sinners,  though  they 
exhibit  a  little  more  dexterity  in  the  matter  than 
any  other  party.  It  is  not  so  much  a  Democratic 
sin  as  a  party  sin.  But  I  must  do  it  the  justice  to 
say  that  if,  in  many  respects,  it  is  a  good  party  to 
quit,  in  one  respect  it  is  a  good  party  to  belong  to. 
No  party  equals  it  in  ability  to  make  a  great  man 
out  of  small  materials.  It  has  been  said  that  you 
can't  make  a  silk  purse  out  of  a  pig's  ear;  but  that 
was  a  saying  before  the  dexterity  alluded  to  was 
known.  What  credit  is  a  party  entitled  to  for 
making  a  great  man  of  one  to  whom  nature  has 
been  generous?  He  works  out  his  own  salvation, 
and  makes  a  great  man  of  himself;  no  thanks  to 
anybody.  But  0,  who  can  withhold  his  admira- 
tion of  a  party  capable  of  making  a  great  man  of 
one  towards  whom  nature  has  been  somewhat 
niggardly,  and  a  good  deal  parsimonious?  It  is  said 
that  after  the  transforming  influence  is  brought  to 
bear,  the  change  is  so  great  that  a  man's  most  in- 
timate acquaintances  fail,  at  first,  to  recognize  him ; 
and  that  the  change  in  one  case  was  so  great,  the 
improvement  so  wonderful,  that  the  lucky  fellow's 
own  dogs  did  not  know  him,  and,  on  his  return 
home,  flew  at  him,  and  would  have  torn  him  in 
pieces  if  he  had  not  been  as  active  as  a  squirrel, 
and  sprang  up  a  tree,  where,  by  staying  all  night, 
he  escaped  the  enraged  animals.  In  the  morning, 
the  neighbors  came  and  took  them  off,  or  he  would 
have  been  there  till  this' day.  One  of  these  beau- 
ties told  me,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  of  his  tribula- 
tions resulting  from  being  made  a  great  man.  He 
said  that  for  the  period  of  two  years  after  his  pro- 
motion, he  could  not  get  his  own  wife  to  believe 
that  he  was  indeed  a  Senator !  He  thought  it  was 
owing  to  her  stupidity,  and  did  not  suspect  that 
it  was  because  the  thing  was  so  absurd!  There 
was  no  question  of  identity  in  his  case.  She  knew 
well  enough  that  the  fellow  was  still  her  husband. 
In  that  respect,  she  was  under  no  halucination; 
but  to  save  the  world  and  her  own  soul,  the  poor 
woman  could  not  yield  to  a  thing  so  preposterous 
as  to  believe  him  a  Senator! 

The  speaking  business  of  the  late  Democratic 
Convention  was  parceled  out  between  McDonald, 
Hendricks  and  Voorhees,  as  follows:  The  patri- 
otic and  constitutional  was  confided  to  McDonald, 
who  was  to  demonstrate  and  prove  that  the  Dem- 
ocratic party  is  now  the  exclusive  friend  of  the 
Constitution  and  the  Union,  for  the  reason  that  it 
embraces  all  who  so  lately  attempted  to  break 
both  down ;  and  he  was  further-  to  perpetrate  the 
joke,  grim  and  ghastly  as  it  seems,  of  attempting 
to  establish  the  following  propositions:  that  is  to 
say,  that  the  Democratic  party  are  now  the  par- 
ticular friends  of  the  soldier — for  the  reason  that 
during  the  war,  in  the  hour  of  his  toils,  privations 
and  dangers,  when  he  needed  encouragement 
most,  they  were  his  enemies, /  and  branded  him 
as  a  hireling  and  a  dog;  that  they  love  him  now, 
Oh  how  much,  because  they  hate  the  cause  for 
which  he  fought  and  bled;  that  they  revere  the 
memory  of  the  dead,  now,  because,  during  the 


24 


war,  when  a  soldier  died,  or  was  killed  in  battle, 
or  perished  from  starvation  in  a  rebel  prison,  or 
an  enrolling  officer  was  murdered,  they  thought 
he  had  died  in  a  bad  cause,  and  wished  he  had 
died  in  a  better ;  that  they  feel  great  sympathy  for 
the  widow  and  the  orphan  of  the  soldier  noic,  be- 
cause the  aid  and  comfort  they  give  to  the  enemy 
made  widows  and  orphans  in  countless  numbers, 
and  filled  the  land  with  mourning;  that  they  have 
a  right  to  make  the  loudest  complaint  about  the 
enormous  public  debt,  now,  because  they  were 
mainly  instrumental  in  bringing  that  calamity 
upon  the  American  people,  by  encouraging  the 
.South  to  rebel,  and  urging  them  to  hold  out,  and 
not  give  in  after  they  were  whipped,  thus  prolong- 
ing the  war,  and  piling  up  the  debt;  and  above  all 
that  they,  the  Democrats,  have  a  right  now  to  dic- 
tate what  material  shall  be  used  in  building  up, 
and  how  the  building  up  shall  be  done,  because 
they  did  the  tearing  down;  and  who  knows  how 
to  build  up  so  well  as  he  who  tears  down?  I  have 
myself  given  the  argument,  the  why  and  where- 
fore of  each  one  of  the  propositions  that  he  was  to 
establish,  in  order  to  impart  perspicuity  to  the 
statement,  and  show  what  a  crushing  burthen  was 
put  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  stalwart  Joseph.  I 
do  this  in  order  that  each  proposition  and  the  in- 
exorable logic  of  the  thing  may  go  together.  It 
was  a  terrible  load  to  put  upon  any  one  man's 
shoulders — enough  to  break  down  Hercules;  but 
He  stood  up  under  it  as  bravely  as  he  could.  And 
then  an  argument  was  to  be  put  in  by  Mr.  Hen- 
dricks, and  some  mischievous  fellow  said  he 
thought  it  would  be  in  accordance  with  the  eter- 
nal fitness  of  things  if  he  were  also  to  appear  in 
the  character  of  Aminidab  Sleek,  a  survey  of  the 
audience,  I  presume,  and  not  anything  in  Mr.  H.'s 
manners  suggesting  the  wicked  thought.  Mr. 
Hendricks  is  a  cogent  reasoner,  and  a  good  talker, 
and  on  this  occasion  spoke  as  he  always  does, 
handsomely.  When  a  speaker  talks  well,  it  is 
hard  to  describe  how  well.  I  would  say,  at  any 
rate,  he  spoke  as  beautifully  as  the  lady  witness 
said  she  talked  to  prevent  a  fight.  The  men  were 
quarreling,  said  she,  and  I  went  out  to  dry  it  up 
and  squelch  it,  and  you  had  better  believe  I  talked 
very  pretty.  I  reckon,  Judge,  continued  she,  you 
never  heard  a  woman  talk  so  powerful  pretty  in 
all  the  born  days  of  your  life.  But  I  would  not 
oe  misunderstood,  even  by  a  blockhead;  and  there 
are  blockheads  in  these  days,  here  and  there,  as 
there  were  giants  in  the  land  in  other  days. 

There  is  no  good  generalship  in  belittleing  your 
antagonist,  and  whoever  gets  it  into  his  head'that 
Mr.  Hendricks,  besides  being  personally  a  clever 
gentleman,  who  has  eaten  a  power  of  fox  meat  in 
his  day  and  generation,  is  not  potentional  in  argu- 
ment, and  of  good  reasoning  powers,  and  acts  on 
that  belief,  may  find  out  his  error  when  it  is  ever- 
lastingly too  late,  and  have  no  other  consolation 
left  than  to  lift  up  his  eyes  in  torment.  Still,  this 
may  be  said  of  his  forensic  efforts :  that  he  is  a 
little  unscrupulous,  and  what  might  be  good  logic 
if  his  cause  were  good,  frequently  degenerates,  as 
the,  case  is.  into  but  plausible  sophistry.  A  good 
speech,  some  one  remarked,  for  one  of  the  kind, 
(referring  to  a  speech  of  Mr.  Hendricks')  but  devil 
take  the  kind;  meaning  that  it  exhibited  fine 
powers,  prostituted  to  a  bad  purpose.  When 
sneaking,  cowardly  dogs  were  murdering  our  en- 
rolling officers,  and  Mr.  Hendricks  was  implored 


to  give  better  advice  to  his  deluded  followers,  all 
that  he  could  pluck  up  courage  and  find  in  his 
heart  to  say,  was  that  they  had  better  not  resist 
the  draft,  because  they  could  not  do  it  successfuly, 
and  for  fear  of  incurring  the  displeasure  of  his 
party,  he  apologized  for  that,  by  declaring  that  he 
had  never  asked  any  one  to  go  into  the  service. 
A  word  in  season,  fitly  spoken,  how  good  a  thing 
it  is.  It  would  have  prevented  the  shedding  of 
precious  blood;  but,  Oh!  Mr.  Hendricks  had  nei- 
ther the  heart  or  the  courage,  and  it  was  not 
spoken ! 

At  the  close  of  the  ceremonies,  a  speech  was  to 
be  made,  and  it  was  to  be,  and  truly  is,  the  crown- 
ing glory  of  the  majestic  pyramid,  by  Mr.  Voor- 
hees.  The  finishing  touches  could  hardly  have 
been  confided  to  a  more  accomplished  artist.  At 
an  independent  picture,  he  is  almost  perfect: 
while  at  a  group,  as  in  this  case,  ^jis  pencil  is,  at 
times,  a  little  at  fault.  He  paints  the  negroes  of 
the  South  and  the  whites  of  the  South  with  a  view 
of  showing  what  atmonstrous  thing  it  is  to  give 
the  negroes  the  control.  He  proves  quite  clearly 
that  negro  supremacy  would  be  unspeakably  wick- 
ed; but  in  doing  so,  he  proves  just  as  clearly  that 
it  would  be,  and  is  utterly  impossible.  He  paints 
the  negro  as  an  ignorant,  stupid,  stolid,  degraded 
barbarian,  hardly  distinguishable  from  the  brute, 
upon  whom  the  light  of  knowledge  or  intelligence 
never  dawned :  a  personification  of  squalid  wretch- 
edness and  misery,  and  declares  that  to  have  been 
his  condition  for  ages,  and  that  under  favorable 
circumstances  he  has  made  no  progress,  because 
he  is  incapable;  and  then  he  exhibits  the  other 
group,  the  whites  of  the  South,  and  of  course  in 
looking  upon  this  picture  we  behold  men  upon 
whom  it  is  delightful  to  look,  and  painful  to  cease 
to  gaze.  The  whites,  of  course,  are  represented  as 
the  Caucasian  race,  and  of  that  race  the  noblest 
type.  Shrewd,  well  informed,  educated,  culti- 
vated, stalwart  men.  In  short,  as  noble  a  race,  in 
all  that  constitutes  manhood,  as  dwells  on  the  face 
of  God's  green  earth.  I  will  not  attempt  to  repeat 
his  eloquent  words,  his  burning  utterances.  It 
will  suffice  if  I  say  that  if  the  South  is  made  up  of 
such  people  as  he-  describes,  I  do  not  know  of 
their  equalanywhere  on  earth's  ample  domain. 
If  the  South  is  made  up  of  such  men,  what  other 
land  has  been  so  richly  endowed?  What  other 
spot  on  earth  has  been  the  recipient  of  such  favors  ? 
God,  in  all  his  handiworks,  never  before  turned 
off  such  a  piece  of  matchless  workmanship,  nor 
made  or  bestowed  on  any  other  land  so  princely 
a  race.  Now,  all  I  have  to  say  to  this  is,  that  if 
we  will  persist  in  this  kind  of  talk,  who  has  it  in 
his  heart  to  blame  these  born  noblemen  for  brand- 
ing us  as  mudsills  and  flunkeys,  or  claiming  it  to 
be  more  honorable  to  be  their  slave  than  a  ]Sorth- 
ern  laboring  freeman,  eating  his  bread  in  the 
sweat  of  his  own  manly  brow?  But  the  testimony 
on  this  point  is  not  uniform.  It  would  seem  that 
everybody  has  not  the  same  exalted  opinion  of 
these  lords  of  creation.  Some  heretic  and  disbe- 
liever has  said,  for  instance,  this:  "Since  the 
war,  the  children  in  the  Southern  States  have 
learned  to  like  wheat  biscuit  better  than  corn 
bread.  The  next  thing  wHlibe  to  learn  to  read ! !' 
They  made  a  claim  to  superiority  for  thirty  years, 
accompanied  with  every  token  of  insult.  We  im- 
plored them  in  God's  name  to  cherish  no.  such 
unkind  sentiment,  and  tried  to  persuade  them 


25 


th 


at  they  were  laboring  under  a  delusion,  and 
used  every  possible  means  to  eradicate  such  mis- 
takened  notions,  but  it  was  all  in  vain.     It  seemed 
only  to  swell  their  conceptions  and  rivet  their 
convictions  of  their  own  grandeur;  and  it  was  not 
until  kind  words  and  gentle  means  had  proved 
utterly  powerless  to  shield  us  from  insult,  that  we 
concluded  it  would  be  well  to  cram  the  lie  down 
their  throats.     We  succeeded  pretty  well  in^tuff-* 
ing  the  arrogant  falsehood  down  when  we  com- 
pelled them  to  relax  their  grip  upon  the  throttle 
of  the  bondman,  and  set  him  free;  and  nowT  if  we 
give  him  the  ballot  down  South,  and  suffer  him 
to  go  with  his'  old  master  to  the  polls,  the  claim. 
I  feel  sure,  will  be  abandoned.     But  I  must  not 
fail  to  show  you  these  two  graphic  pictures,  as 
drawn  by  this  Democratic  artist,  placing  them  side 
by  side.     I  will  premise,  however,  before  doing  so, 
that  the  reason  he  gives  why  the  negro  ought  not 
to  be  permitted  to  vote  down  in  rebeldom,  is,  that 
he  (the  negro)  never  wrote  a  book,  never  built  a 
eity,  never  made  the  mute  marble  speak,  nor 
carved  a  face  divine  out  of  a  bowlder.     Let  that 
be  trie  standard  for  a  white  man,  and  where,  Oh 
Lord  God  of  Israel!  where  would  he  find  his  vot- 
ers?    One  to  a  county,  and  a  hundred  to  a  State, 
would  be  a  big  estimate.     He  himself  does  not 
come  up  to  the  standard,  and  would  be  put  high  * 
and  dry  upon  the  retired  list,  without  a  pension. 
He  says  no  negro  ever  wrote  an  epic  poem,  or 
reared  a  doric,  gothic  or  ionic  column.     I  fear  that 
kind  of  talk  was  Greek  to  some  few  of  his' intelli- 
gent audience,  and  that  when  he  mentioned  epic 
poems,  they  supposed  he  spoke  of  something  to 
eat.     Still,  I  am  not  prepared  to  say  he  was  not, 
in  the  main,  correct.     Euclid,  it  is  true,  was  an 
Abyssinian  negro,  but  his  work,  I  am  told,  wns 
rather  trashy.      Alexander   Dumas,   the  prolific 
novelist,  is  said  to  be  a  quadroon.     A  fellow  who 
thought,  perhaps,  there  was,  in.  his  case,  a  negro 
in  the  wood  pile,  was  making  some  inquiries  of 
Dumas,  himself,  touching  his  lineage.     "Me  fath- 
er," said  he,  "was  a  mulatto;  his  father  was  a  full- 
blooded  negro,  and  his  father  a  baboon.     My  ped- 
igree begins  where  yours  ends."     But  I  am»  keep- 
ing you  in  suspense,  and  withholding  these  pic- 
tures" too  long.     Behold  them  as  I  read: 


WHITE   MAS. 

Here  commenced  that  sys- 
tem of  legislation  whose  pur- 
pose is  the  expatriation  or  ex - 
tinotian  of  a  noble  and  kindred 
people  in  the  South  and  tha  su- 
premacy and  domination  of  a 
race  which  is  incapable  not 
merely  of  self-government,  out 
of  the  lowest  elements  of  civil- 
ized life.  Here  commenced  the 
most  extensive  assault  ever 
made  in  the  interests  of  bar- 
barism against  the  bulwarks  of 
civilization.  The  attempt  to 
Africanize  one-third  of  the 
American  Republic,  to  surren- 
der to  the  negro  and  his  de- 
scendants ten  productive  and 
powerful  States  of  your  Union, 
surpasses  in  atrocity,  the  dark- 
est and  most  awful  efforts  ever 
made  by  the  monsters  of  histo- 
ry to  overturn  liberty  and  re- 
tard the  progress  and  enlight- 
ened advancement  of  the  hu- 
man race.  The  Goths,  the 
Visi-Goths,  and  the  Vandals, 
smote  Imperial  Rome,  and 
made  her  arts,  her  literature, 
and  her  sciences  pay  tribute  to 
the  tall,    yellow-haired,   blue- 


Where  are  the  books  he  Las 
written?  Where  are  his  tem- 
ples '  dedicated  to  science  V 
Where  are  his  histories,  filled 
with  his  achievements  in  war 
or  peace  ?  Where  are  his  epic 
poems,  his  odes  and  his  bal- 
lads ?  Where  is  his  sculpture  ? 
What  block  of  marble  ever 
took  the  human  face  and  form 
under  the  divine  inspiration  of 
his  genius?  Where  is  his  ar- 
chitecture ?  What  quarry  did- 
he  ever  open,  and  what  Doric, 
Gothic  or  Ionic  columns  did  he 
ever  raise?  Where  are  his  cit- 
ies ?  He  has  had  six  thousand 
years  in  which  to  build  them. 
Where  is  one,  the  work  of  his 
hands  and  the  offspring  of  his 
enterprise?  All  history  is  si- 
lent as  to  these  questions.  He 
has  made  no  sign  of  progress 
in  all  the  wide  realms  of  the 
ages.  The  great  creations  of 
human  genius,  the  mighty  pro- 
ductions of  science,  are  to  him 
an  impenetrable  mystery.  The 
locomotives,  which  fly  through 
the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
land,     coaveying    brother    to 


eyed  hordes  of  heathendom  on 
the  banks  of  the  Danube,  the 
Rhine,  and  in  the  bleak  woods 
of  Scandinavia.  But  these 
were  kingly  races,  born  to  gov- 
ern empires,  and  the  American 
citizen  draws  his  pure  blood 
from  their  veins.  They  con- 
quered their  supremacy  in  open 
war  and  held  it.  Titus  beat 
down  the  sacred  gates  of  Jeru- 
salem, in  the  unhallowed  spirit 
of  Roman  conquest,  but  such 
was  the  fulfillment  of  a  pro- 
phetic punishment.  Hyder  Ali 
doomed  the  Carnatic  to  the 
desolation  of  fire  and  slaught- 
er; Louis  XIV  burnt  the  Pala- 
tinate, and  Revolutionary 
France  decreed  to  make  the  La 
Vendee  "a  solitude  and  call  it 
peace."  But  all  these  sanguin- 
ary and  atrocious  crimes 
against  life,  liberty,  property, 
and  national  progress  and 
honor,  sink  into  a  feeble  insig- 
nificance by  the  side  of  that 
which  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  is  now  enacting 
in  the  middle  of  this  boasted 
century.  No  such  country  in 
extent,  national  wealth  and 
physical  greatness,,  was  ever 
before  offered  as  a  prey  to  hu- 
man vengeance  and  partisan 
malice,  as  the  ten  lost  States 
present.  No  such  system  of 
free  government  was  ever  spo- 
liated and  defiled  by  the  pollu- 
ted hand  of  despotism.  No 
such  a  people  for  intellect, 
courage  and  virtue  was  ever  be- 
fore made  to  pass  under  the 
yoke;  nor' ever  before,  from 
the  beginning  of  the  world, 
from  the  earliest  twilight  dawn 
of  history,  was  the  sacriligious 
attempt  made  to  govern  a  civ- 
ilized countiy  by  such  a  race 
as  the  negro.  You  may  search 
the'annals  of  ail  countries  and 
of  every  clime  ;  you  may  ran- 
sack ancient  libraries  and  dip 
up  forgotten  books,  but  such 
an  experiment  as  this  govern- 
ment is  now  making  will  be 
found  without  a  precedent  and 
without  a  parallel  in  the  recor- 
ded transactions  of  men. 


These  are  the  fellows  the  gentlemen  fears  will 
now  outstrip  us  in  the  race  of  life.  *  Can  a  living 
soul,  a  living,  moving,  breathing  monument  of 
mercy,  look  upon  the  pictures  and  not  be  awfully 
frightened.  But  he  forgets  (an  inadvertance,  I 
presume)  to  tell  us  that  the  negroes  down  South 
have  tails.  If  that  Had  occurred  to  him  he  would 
I  fancy,  have  pictured  one  of  those  elected  a 
judge,  sitting  on  the  bench,  switching  off  the  flies 
with  his  own  tail.  There  was  a  time  when  it  was 
not  considered  manly  to  sneer  at  the  humble, 
when  man's  inhumanity  to  man  was  spoken  of 
with  disapprobation.  But  that  was  in  days  of 
other  years,  before  the  advent  of  the  new,  adora- 
ble and  ever-blessed  Gospel  of  Democracy ;  that 
was  when  Thomas  Jefferson  could  say,  without 
danger  of  excommunication  from  the  Democratic 
party,  speaking  of  the  infamy  of  slavery,  VL  trem- 
ble for  my  country,  when  I  reflect  that  God  is 
just,  and  that  his  justice  will  not  sleep  forever." 
The  history  of  poor  frail  human  nature  admon- 
ishes us  that  those  most  prone  to  truckle  to  the 
great  are  most  scornful  to  the  humble,  swift  to 
bespatter  the  great  with  unmerited  praise  and , 
kick  and  malign  the  poor;  and,  oh!  how  deplo- 
rable it  is  that  the  pencil  of  the  painter  and  the 
tongue  of  the  gifted  son  of  genius  are  not  always 
free  from  the  infirmity.     There  is  always  enough 


brother  and  distant  iiicnd  to 
distant  friend— the  .-teainHb.il>, 
whieh  plows  the  deep  and 
makes  the  waste  waters  the 
highway  of  commerce  and  civ- 
ilization—the lightning  wire, 
which  brings  the  ends  of  the 
earth  together  and  sends  a 
whisper  around  the  gobe — the 
knowledge,  which  penetrates 
the  earth  and  reveals  the  store- 
houses of  its  necessary  trea- 
sures— the  science,  which  fore- 
tells the  storm  and  erects  the 
strong  light  house  in  the  midst 
of  the  raging  waters,  the  very 
light  which  shines  therein  with 
a  useful  glory— none  of  these 
things  spring  from  the  African 
brain  or  even  excite  it  with  the 
faintest  dawn  of  curiosity  or 
comprehension.  Am  I  told 
that  he  has  been  in  bondage  for 
centuries  ?  That  is  but  another 
and  still  more  conclusive  reason 
of  his  inferiority  and  incapa- 
bility to  govern.  Has  your 
race  ever  degenerated  into 
slavery  ?  Can  you  enslave  a 
proud  and.  intellectual  people? 
The.  attempt  has  often  been 
made,  and  has  as  often  ulti- 
mately failed.  Am  I  told  that 
his  opportunities  on  the  broad 
theater  of  history  have  been 
less  than  yours  ?  We  find  him 
in  his  native  state  in  possession 
of  one  of  the  great  continents 
of  the  earth.  Its  lands  are  full 
of  riches  ;  its  rivers  wash  them 
in  every  direction  with  naviga- 
ble waters,  and  its  harbors  in- 
vite the  commerce  of  the  seas. 
Yet  the  world  has  advanced, 
and  man  ha3  progressed  on  all 
the  continents  except  upon 
tjhis.  In  barbarian  darkness 
the  explorer  found  it,  thou- 
sands of  years  ago  ;  and  in  bar- 
barian darkness  it  Remains  to- 
day, in  the  midst  of  the  univer- 
sal conflagration  of  mental  ac- 
tivity which  now  illuminates 
the  civilized  world, 


26 


to  speak  the  praises  of  the  powerful,  but  too  few 
ready  to  speak  a  word  for  down-trodden  human- 
ity, though  man  never  appears  so  noble  in  the 
sight  of  God  and  all  good  men  as  when  so 
employed,  however  contemptible  it  may  render 
him  in  the  estimation  of  a  debased  party.  It 
ought  not  to  be  larceny,  it  seems  to  me  to  steal 
a  negro's  property,  nor  murder  to  cut  his  throat, 
providing  it  does  not  derogate  from  a  man's  title 
to  manhood  to  be  unwilling  to  accord  to  him 
the  common  rights  of  humanity.  If  these 
pictures  of  the  white  and  the  black  man,  as  ex- 
hibited before  you,  were  faithful  and  not  distort- 
ed, if  the  hand  that  drew  them  had  not  this  par- 
ticular mode  of  vindicating  his  own  title  to  man- 
hood, then  it  is  absurd  to  pretend  that  there  is 
any  danger  of  negro  supremacy.  We  have  been 
taught  that  knowledge  is  power,  that  the  mind  is 
the  standard  of  the  man,  and  we  will  refuse  to 
be  frightened  at  the  scarce  crow  of  negro  suprem- 
acy, until  we  learn  to  forget  these  maxims  and  all 
that  we  ever  knew,  and  lose  what  little  indepen- 
dent sense  we  ever  had,  besides. 

Mr.  Doolittle  was  not  ashamed  to  repeat  in  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States  the  stale  calumny 
that  Congress  had  legislated  to  elevate  the  negro 
above  the  white  man,  and  to  turn  over  the  late 
rebel  States  to  negro  domination.  Let  the  words 
of  Governor  Brown  of  Georgia,  a  life-long  Demo- 
crat, answer  all  such  slanders.  In  a  late  speech 
delivered  at  Atlanta,  Governor  Brown  said : 

"The  people  North  have  been  told  that  the  acts 
of  Congress  establish  negro  supremacy  and  white 
subordination  in  the  South.  This  charge  is  false. 
It  was  the  perverse  obstinacy  of  the  white  race 
refusing  to  take  control  that  gave  the  negroes 
power  in  the  convention.  There  is  fifteen  thou- 
sand white  majority  in  Georgia.  With  this  major- 
ity and  the  boasted  superiority  of  the  race  in  in- 
tellect, education,  experience  and  wealth,  it  is  a 
libel  on  the  white  race  to  say  that  negroes  can 
rule  intellect  and  capital,  and  control  numbers 
everywhere." 

The  white  men  of  the  South  largely  outnumber 
the  negroes,  and  it  is  a  libel  on  their  manhood 
and  intelligence  to  assert  that  a  negro  minority 
can  wrest  the  governments  of  their  States  out  of 
their  hands  by  means  of  the  elective  franchise. 

And  this  is  the  very  same  Doolittle  who,  in  a 
letter  to  the  editor  of  the  Janesville  Gazette,  in 
1862,  said: 

"As  we  have  war,  and  the  rebels  will  insist  upon 
war,  under  the  proclamation  of  the  President,  I 
would  make  a  negro  territory  in  the  United 
States,  beginning  with  South  Carolina." 

And  whose  heart  but  this  same  Doolittle, wrung 
with  anguish,  is  now  bleeding,  and  whose  eyes  but 
this  same  Doolittle's  are  now  streaming  with  tears 
and  flowing  like  a  fountain;  and  whose  voice  but 
this  same  Doolittle's  is  now  plaintive  with  emo- 
tion and  soul-sick  sorrow,  not  because  we  have 
made  a  negro  colony  of  the  South,  beginning  with 
South  Carolina,  as  he  advised,  but  because,  for  the 
protection  of  the  loyal  white  man,  we  grant  the 
ballot  to  the  negro.  Oh,  Doolittle!  Sorrowing 
Doolittle  !  May  God  pour  the  balm  of  consolation 
into  the  bleeding  heart  of  the  weeping  Doolittle. 
But  to  return  to  the  subject.  What  do  these  folks 
expect  us  to  believe  ?  Why,  that  to  extend  the 
elective  franchise  to  the  negro  of  the  South,  not 
the    exclusive  right,  but  to  permit  him  to  enjoy  it 


with  all  the  whites  who  have  not  committed  per- 
jury, is  to  establish  negro  supremacy,  and  we 
must  believe  this  in  the  face  of  their  own  declara- 
tions, I  am  using  now  Mr.  Voorhees'  own  words, 
"That  the  negro  race  is  not  only  incapable  of  self- 
government,  but  of  the  lowest  elements  of  civil- 
ized life."  That  it  has  made  no  progress  in  all 
the  wide  realms  of  the  ages;  that  his  state  of 
slavery  is  proof  of  his  incapacity,  for  a  race  that 
has  any  sense,  or  intellect,  or  capacity,  can't  be  en- 
slaved; that  the  explorer  found  him  in  a  state  of 
barbarian  darkness  a  thousand  years  ago,  and  in 
barbarian  darkness  he  remains  to-day  for  the 
reason,  I  suppose,  that  no  feeble  ray  of  light  has 
ever  found  its  way  through  his  thick  skull  or 
passed  athwart  his  benighted  vision.  These  are 
the  men  who  are  to  supplant  this  noble  race, 
thrust  them  aside  and  seize  from  their  hands  the 
reins  of  government,  not  because  you  put  the 
reins  into  their  hands,  but  because  you  simply 
extend  to  them  the  ballot,  and  give  them  a  chance 
in  the  race  of  life,  any  take  it  from  nobody  else 
who  has  not  committed  perjury.  If  we  did  not 
know  better,  we  would  conclude  from  the  clamor 
that  is  raised,  that  the  whites  of  the  South  are  dis- 
franchised in  a  mass  and  tneir  ears  nailed  to  the 
gate  post;  but  the  truth  is,  fewer  whites  are  dis- 
franchised under  the  Congressional  plan  of  recon- 
struction, than  under  that  .of  the  President.  I 
think  the  gentleman's  fears  of  negro  supremacy 
are  groundless,  because  if  his  picture  of  the  negro 
is  a  faithful  and  truthful  picture,  there  would  be 
no  difficulty  of  preventing  any  election  from 
being  carried  by  negro  votes.  It  would  not  be 
difficult,  if  they  are  so  benighted,  to  persuade 
them  that  the  election  is  the  name  of  a  ferocious 
beast  that  would  eat  them  up  if  they  did  not  keep 
away.  Stigmatize  this  thing  as  negro  supremacy 
to  your  heart's  content;  it  is,  after  all,  but  loyal 
supremacy ;  it  is,  after  all,  permitting  those  to 
support  and  participate  in  the  government  who 
do  not  want  to  tear  it  down — putting  the  ship-of- 
state  into  hands  that  would  not  gladly  scuttle  it. 
I  will  illustrate  this  thing  by  supposing  one-half 
the  people  of  one  of  the  late  rebel  States  white, 
and  half  black;  one-half  of  the  whites  loyal  and 
half  disloyal.  The  franchise  is  granted  to-  all, 
white  and  black,  and  the  blacks  stand  by  that 
emblem  of  beauty  and  glory,  the  good  old  flag, 
and  vote  with  the  loyal  whites.  Is  that  negro  su- 
premacy, or  is  it  giving  the  good  and  the  true 
that  advantage  that  is  extended  to  them,  the 
world  over,  against  the  false  and  the  wicked?  It 
is  not  discriminating  in  favor  of  the  black  man, 
for  the  white  is  not  excluded,  except  the  male- 
factors. It  is  simply  a  discrimination  in  favor  of 
those  who  would  not  destroy  the  Government, 
and  against  those  who  would. 

No  matter  how  loud  Democracy  may  howl 
about  negro  supremacy  and  the  bleeding  Consti- 
tution, we  do  not  propose  to  confide  the  queen  of 
the  world  and  the  child  of  the  skies  to  those  who 
would  strangle  it.  A  question  is  asked,  and  it  is 
supposed  to  be  what  is  called  a  clincher — one  that 
will  cause  a  blush  of  shame  to  mantle  the  cheek 
of  the  interrogated.  You  extend  the  franchise 
to  the  negro  down  South,  are  you  in  favor  of  ex- 
tending it  to  him  Indiana?  It  is  not  a  hard  ques- 
tion for  me  to  answer.  My  answer  is,  yes,  when- 
ever Indiana  and  South  Carolina  are  parallel  ca- 
ses.    I  don't  want  the  South  comnelled  to  take 


27 


any  medicine  I  am  unwilling  to  take  myself,  un- 
less they  are  afflicted  with  a  different  disease. 
But  0 !  what   quackery  it  is  to  apply   the  same 

f  medicine  for  every  malady.  Whenever  the  Leg- 
islature of  Indiana,  by  an  ordinance,  has  attempt- 
ed to  take  the  State  out  of  the  Union,  and  the 
hands  of  a  large  majority  are  still  red,  reeking 
with  innocent  blood,  shed  in  the  wicked  attempt, 
when  her  Constitution  is  subverted  and  gone  to 
flinders,  all  is  anarchy,  and  she  is  without  civil 
government,  as  Andrew  Johnson  by  seven  solemn 
proclamations  declared  the  seceding  States  to  be, 
I  shall  be  in  favor  of  building  on  loyalty,  and 
granting  the  elective  franchise  to  all  loyal  men 
found  within  her  border,  without  distinction  of 
race  or  color,  if  that  is  proven  to  be  the  only  way 
that  the  State  can  be  reconstructed  on  a  loyal 
basis.  Until  that  state  of  things  exist  in  this 
State,  I  am  not  in  favor  of  Congress  interfering 
with  the  question.  Congress  has  no  jurisdiction 
until  the  constitution  of  the  State  is  subverted. 
We  are  in  a  state  of  anarchy,  and  without  civil 
government,  and  I  pray  God  that  day  may  never 
come.  I  am  not  in  favor  of  Congress  attempting 
what  it  has  no  right  to  do,  no  matter  how  delight- 
ful it  might  be  to  our  Democratic  friends.  When 
the  people  of  Indiana  want  the  negroes  to  vote,  I 
imagine  we  shall  find  it  out  in  the  mode  specified 
in  the  Constitution.  If  they  do  not,  all  that  is 
necessary  to  do  to  accomplish  their  wTish  is  to  do 
nothing — the  easiest  thing  to  do  in  the  world. 
So  on  the  point  of  negroes  voting  in  Indiana, 

r  there  is  no  difficulty ;  no  black  and  portenteous 
cloud^painting  "hell  on  the  sky."  I  am  in  favor 
of  members  of  Congress  doing  what  they  have  a 
right  to  do,  and  what  there  is  good  reasons  they 
should  do;  but  I  am  not  in  favor  of  their  doing 
or  attempting  to  do  what  they  have  no  right  to 
do,  and  no  good  reason  for  attempting.  I  do  not 
want  them  to  be  guilty  of  usurpation  simply  to 
give  the  wicked  and  the  base  an  opportunity  to 
carp.  By  the  constitution  of  Indiana  a  negro 
can't  vote.  The  first  section  of  the  sixteenth 
article  of  the  constitution  provides  how  it  may  be 
amended.  It  provides:  "Any  amendment  or 
or  amendments  to  this  constitution  may  be  pro- 
posed in  either  branch  of  the  General  Assembly, 
and,  if  the  same  shall  be  agreed  to  by  a  majority 
of  the  members  elected  to  each  of  the  two 
Houses,  such  proposed  amendment  or  amend- 
ments shall,  with  the  yeas  and  nays  thereon,  be 
entered  on  their  journals,  and  referred  to  the 
General  Assembly  to  be  chosen  at  the  next  gen- 
eral election :  and  if,  in  the  General  Assembly  so 
next  chosen,  such  proposed  amendment  or 
amendments  shall  be  agreed  to  by  a  majority  of 
all  the  members  elected  to  each  House,  then  it 

*  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  General  Assembly  to 
submit  such  amendment  or  amendments  to  the 
electors  of  the  State;  and  if  a  majority  of  said 
electors  shall  ratify  the  same,  such  amendment  or 
amendments  shall  become  a  part  of  this  constitu- 
tion." So  an  amendment  of  the  clause  of  the 
constitution  prohibiting  negroes  from  voting  in 
Indiana  can  not  be  an  issue  before  the  people 
until  .after  the  assembling  of  two  successive  Leg- 
islatures, and  may  not  then,  for  the  Legislature 
may  not  submit  the  question  at  all,  and  one  Leg- 
islature may  propose  to  do  so,  and  the  next  may 
refuse,  and  the  Legislature  only  assembles  once 
in  two  years.     I  want  to  discuss  living  issues,  and 


not  those  not  yet  born.  I  want  to  borrow  no 
trouble,  and  shall  not  weep  over  the  baby  that  is 
to  toddle  down  to  the  spring  and  fall  in  and  be 
drowned,  until  the  poor  little  unfortunate  thing 
is  born.  It  is  no  more  in  issue  than  every  other 
clause  of  the  constitution.  They  are  all  there, 
and  there  are  none  of  them  submitted.  But  why 
will  you  force  negro  suffrage  on  the  South,  and 
jiot  take  a  little  of  your  own  medicine,  and  give 
the  ballot  to  the  negro  in  Indiana?  Congress 
don't  attempt  to  do  it,  I  presume,  for  the  same 
reason  that  Andrew  Johnson  did  not  attempt  to 
remove  the  Governor  of  Indiana  and  disperse  the 
Legislature  of  the  State  at  the  same  time  he  was 
doing  that  thing  with  so  little  ceremony  down 
South  in  the  rebel  States.  They  had  opened  the 
door  for  that  kind  of  thing  to  be  done  by  their 
wicked  and  causeless  rebellion ;  and  though  a 
rigid  States'  Rights  man,  he  considered  that  that 
had  so  far  altered  the  case,  that  he  could  properly 
go  down  South  and  expel  the  Governors  elected 
by  the  people,  from  their  seats,  with  less  ceremo- 
ny than  that  used  when  the  money-changers, 
were  scourged  from  the  Temple,  and  disperse  the 
legislators  elected  by  the  people  as  a  band  of 
usurpers.  He  not  only  did  this,  but  he  went 
further,  and  nominated  and  appointed  Governors 
of  his  own;  called  conventions,  and  instructed 
them  when  and  where  they  should  assemble; 
and,  when  assembled,  what  particular  ordinances 
they  must  pass.  He  even  attempted  to  put  their 
constitutions  into  effect  without  submitting  them 
to  the  people.  No  one  pretends  that  he  could  do 
any  such  things  as  these  in  Indiana  or  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  no  one  knows  better  than  he  that  if 
he  were  to  attempt  it,  he  would  evoke  a  storm 
before  which  no  mortal  man  could  stand,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  crime  of  which  he  would  be  guilty. 
He  based  the  right  to  do  all  this  upon  the  fact 
that  they  had  rebelled,  and  subverted  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  State. .  He  was  but  a  servant  of 
the  people,  and  without  legislative  power;  and 
now  when  the  sovereign  people  attempt  a  step  in 
the  same  direction,  through  their  representatives 
in  Congress,  based  upon  the  same  ground,  the 
cry  of  negro  supremacy  is  raised,  and  we  are  ask- 
ed why  we  do  not  attempt  it  in  Indiana.  When 
Indiana  is  guilty  of  a  wicked  and  bloody  rebel- 
lion, it  will  be  time  enough  to  ask  the  question.- 
We  want  no  different  rule  for  parallel  cases:  but 
we  want  the  cases  to  be  parallel  before  we  apply 
the  same  rule.  I  think  it  is  more  than  appropri- 
ate to  begin  this  thing  right  where  we  do  begin. 
It  is  but  responsive  to  the  impulses  of  humanity 
to  take  the  burden  from  the  shoulders  where  it 
has  been  the  most  grievous ;  to  award  the  right 
where  the  wrong  has  been  the  greatest;  to  take 
our  stand  upon  the  rock  of  justice,  on  the  very 
spot  where  wrong  has  been  most  rampant,  and 
the  crime  against  liberty  the  most  atrocious.  It 
is  but  right,  and  but  in  accordance  with  the  eter- 
nal principles  of  justice,  that  the  bugle  notes  of 
freedom  should  be  sounded,  and  the  rights  of 
mankind  vindicated,  on  the  very  spot  where  the 
heel  of  despotism  has  made  its  plainest  print.  If 
any  one  is  silly  enough  to  hang  himself  because 
the  sunlight  of  freedom  beams  forth  in  the  dark 
places,  and  the  dark-skinned  and  toiling  bonds- 
man is  lifted  up  a  littte,  it  is  a  free  country ;  let 
him  do  it.  He  will  die  as  the  fool  dieth,  and,  for 
aught  I  know,  go  where  the  worm  dieth  not.     I 


28 


shall  shed  no  tears,  nor  be  a  mourner  at  his 
ral  There  is  one  thing  which  it  will  be  well 
for  all  concerned  to  take  notice :  that  the  people 
of  the  United  States  will  not  submit  to  the  doc- 
trine that  the  servant  may  do  what  the  people 
may  not.  Whoever'  acts  .on  that  principle,  wheth- 
er lie  be  a  constable,  or  President  of  the  United 
States,  will  come  to  grief.  Our  Democratic  friends 
are  great  sticklers  for  uniformity  ; '  but  the  uni- . 
formity  which  they  favor  is  that  which  oppresses, 
and  not  that  which  elevates  ;  the  uniformity  that 
makes  man  groan,  arid  rtot  the  uniformity  that 
gladdens  his  heart.  When  part  of  the  States 
were  slave  and  part  free,  the  uniformity  they 
wanted  was  that  slavery  might  go  anywhere  and 
everywhere  ;  universal  slaver}',  and  not  universal 
freedom;  and  now  when  the  ballot  is  given  in 
some  of  the  States  and  withheld  in  others,  they 
advocate  the  uniformity  that  withholds  it  in  all, 
and  declare  it  to  be  an  outrage  that  it  is  granted 
anywhere.  There  is  one  kind  of  uniformity 
whereof  they  might  perhaps  prudently  be  a  little 
shy.     It  is  implied  in  that  beautiful  supplication  : 

"That  mercy  I  to  others  show, 
That  mercy  show  to  me." 

A  Democrat  that  would  he  guilty  of  the  wickedness  to  utter 
such  blasphemy,  would,  I  fear,  be  excommunicated  by  his 
party  from  the  household  of  faith,  or  as  tho  phrase  goes,  kicked 
by  the  faithful  "higher  than  a  kite."  The  great  Tycoon  of 
Gotham,  Fernando  Wood,  said  the  other  day  in  his  place  ia 
Congress,  that  the  act  now  pending  amendatory  of  the  recon- 
struction act  was  the  most  infamous  measure  of  this  most  in- 
famous Congress,  upon  hearing  which,  Oaks  Amos,  a  quiet, 
civil  old  man,  a  member  from  Massachusetts,  walked  up  to  him 
and  said,  "Sir,  Congress  would  be  less  infamous  if  you  were  out 
of  it."  That  was  what  I  call  a  center  shot— the  boys  would  call 
it  a  sockdolager.  It  is  a  little  more  elegant  than  that  other 
retort  of  which  we  have  all  heard:  "you  are  no  gentleman," 
says  one  to  another.  "  If  I  Mas  a  gentleman,"  was  the  retort, 
"I  should  have  the  advantage  of  you."  It  is  just  §uch  fellow* 
as  ho  who  are  now  raising  this  clamor  abotit  negro  supremacy. 
They  would  re-open  the  African  slave  trade  to-day  if  they  could 
and  repeal  the  laws  making  the  infamous  traffic  piracy.  They 
would  gladly  bring  upon  Indiana  and  all  free  States  the  blight- 
ing  and  withering  crime  of  slavery  ;  and  oh,  how  glad  they 
would  be  to  frighten  somebody,  and  see  the  American  people 
take  a  step  backward.  Examine  the  antecedents  of  these  men, 
if  you  have  a  taste  for  a  dirty  job,  and  are  inclined  to  trail  up 
a  set  of  men  who  are  a  stench  in  the  nostrils  of  all  decent  peo- 
ple, and  as  sure  as-God  reigns  and  the  sun  shines,  at  every  step 
you  will  find  rottenness  in  the  honse  of  Denmark. 

When  these  folks  get  tired  of  the  cry  of  "negro  supremacy," 
they  change  the  diet  a  little  and  call  it  "Africanizing  the 
South."  Now  it  seemes  to  me  that  the  South  was  pretty  well 
Africanized  before  the  rebellion.  In  South  Carolina,  Louisiana 
and  Mississippi,  a  majority  of  the  people  were  negroes,  and  in 
most  of  the  rebel  States  the  negroes  were  quite  numerous,  and 
the  negro  baby  crop,  of  all  the  crops,  was  said  to  be  the  very 
barest  crop. 

I  cannot,  for  my  life,  see  why  that  state  of  thing3  did  not 
Africanize  the  rebel  States.  Suppose  that  heretofore  there  had 
been  no  negroes  and  no  slavery  in  these  States,  and  that  sud- 
denly a  sufficient  number  of  negroes  should  come  into  them  to 
•constitute  a  majority  of  the  whole  people,  don't  you  think  the 
people  down  there  would,  in  that  case,  consider  the  State  prettv 
well  Africanized?  Take  men  and  women  and  children  to  these 
States  in  chains  and  hold  them  in  bondage  after  they  get  there, 
•with  the  delightful  privilege  of  applying  the  scourge  to  their  bleed 
ing  backs,  and  we  hear  no  complaint,  though  the  numbers  might 
be  as  countless  as  the  stars;  but  extend  to  them  the  rights  of 
humanity  and  the  alarm  of  negro  supremacy  is  instantly  heard. 
What  then  is  negro  supremacy  ?  What  i3  it  to  Africanize  the 
South  ?  Teach  a  negro  the  alphabet  is  the  beginning  ;  you  have 
progressed  far  when  he  can  read  the  New  Testament  or  sing  the 
praises  of  the  blessed  Redeemer ;  and  the  infamous  and  diaboli- 
cal thing  is  pretty  well  consummated  when  you  suffer  him  to 
testify  or  vote.  In  pdain  words,  to  civiL  se  and  Christianize 
South  Carolina  would  be  stigmatized  as  Africanizing  the  State, 
but  no  augmentation  of  its  negro  population  provided  they  are 
held  ia  a  brutalized  condition,  would  have  that  tendency.  If 
the  whip  is  not  wrenched  from  the  hands  of  the  master,  he  says 
not  a  word,  no  matter  how  fast  they  come.  It  is  plain  the 
whole  thing  consists  in  elevating  man  and  opening  to  him  gates 
of  knowledge  heretofore  barred  against  him.  If  the  elective 
franchise  is  grantert  to  a  class  of  people  from  whom  it  has  been 
withheld,  who  can  say  with  any  decree  of  truth  that  the  object 
is  to  give  this  new  class  of  men  theTupremacy. 

England  from  time  to  time  removed  disabilities  from  the  Quak- 
ers, Jews,  Catholics  and  Dissenters,  not  to  give  the  supremacv, 
but  simply  to  extend  to  them  privileges  it  was  expedient  thev 


ility  the 
bject  have  committed  the 

in  of  those   States  to  all   their  male  adults,  except 

those  who   hud,  in  accepting   certain  omcesgtaken  an  oath  of 

to   the  Union  whieh   they  afterwards   broke  to   plunge 

a.  The  persons  thus  proseribea  are  less  than  a 
t'  nth  of  the  white  male  adult  population,  and  there  is  still  a 
decided  majority  of  white  votes  under  the  reconstruction  acts  in 
the  ten  States  as  yet  unreconstructed  ;  but  still  in  three  of  them 
the  colored  voters  out  number  the  whites.  Even  in  these  nine- 
tenths  of  the  property,  forty-nine-iifthieths  of  tho  land,  and 
nearly  all  the  trade  and  newspapers  are  possessed  by  the  whites. 
The  wliites  could  still,  under  the  reconstruction  act,  control 
every  one  of  the  States,  so  called,  if  they  were  a  unit,  but  the 
difficulty  is  some  of  them  are  loyal  and  vote  as  the  negroes  do  ; 
and  this  is  the  supremacy  that  is  falsely  called  negro  suprem- 
acy, and  with  the  cry  of  which  the  people  are  to  be  frightened 
into  a  backward  step,  prevented  from  reaping  the  fruit  of  all 
their  toils,  and  compelled  at  last,  after  tho  expenditure  of  an 
ocean  of  blood  and  treasure,  to  surrendento  the  enemy.  Forbid 
it  Almighty  God  !  It  were  a  thousand  times  better  to  have  sur- 
rendered to  him  on  the  battle  field.  It  is  to  turn  a  deaf  ear  to 
the  wail  of  the  widow  and  the  orphan,  and  to  treat  with  con- 
tempt the  memory  of  the  dead.  Is  nit  the  soldier  who  died, 
and  who  now  sleeps  on  fame's  eternal  battle  field,  is  not  his 
memory  entitled  to  better  treatment?  I  say  yes  !  and  I  would 
say  yes  if  his  precious  blood  were  but  ditch  water,  and  his 
sacred  dust  but  fit  food  for  the  carrion  kite,  out  of  respect  for 
the  holy  cause  for  which  he  fought,  and  bled,  and  died.  Were  I 
to  do  less  I  would  feel  like  fleeing  from  the  indignant  face  cf  an 
outraged  people,  as  Adam  felt  when  in  the  cool  of  the  morning 
he  heard  the  voice  of  the  Lord  God  in  the  garden. 

But  I  am  not  quite  through  with  this  charge  of  Africanizing. 
You  Germanize  a  township  by  colonizing  it  with  Germans.  You 
Auglacise  a  neighborhood  settling  it  with  English,  and  Hibor- 
nize  a  district  by  an  emigration  from  the  Green  Isle  of  the 
Ocean.  By  the  same  process  Kentucky,  Virginia,  North  Caro- 
lina and  other  States  are,  as  it  were  transferred  to  Indiana,  by 
emigration.  There  is  a  district  of  country  in  Mexico  that  is 
Americanized  by  being  peopled  from  the  United  States,  and 
it  was  thus  the  Northern  hoards,  those  tall,  yellow-haired  fel- 
lows spoken  of  by  Mr.  Voorhees,  from  the  bleak  woods  of  Scan- 
dinavia, overran  and  transformed  the  British  Isles.  But  you 
might  re-open  the  African  slave  trade,  infamous  and  God  accur- 
sed as  it  is,  and  suffer  slaves  from  Africa  to  flow  into  Virginia 
or  South  Carolina  for  a  hundred  years,  as  unceasing  as  the 
waters  of  the  Mississippi  flow' into  the  Gulf;  the  very  wiudows 
of  heaven  might  be  opened  and  the  fountain  of  the  great  deep 
broken  up,  and  for  forty  days  and  forty  nights  it  might  rain 
negroes  down  as  thick  as  the  frogs  of  Egypt,  and  our  Democratic 
friends  would  never  dream  that  these  States  were  being  Africani- 
zed. But  let  a  little  daylight  dawn  upon  th^se  people,  invest  them 
with  the  poorest  privileges  awarded  anywhere  to  human  beings, 
and  all  tho  furies  are  loose  at'onces  and  we  are  charged  with  the 
attempt  to  Africanize.  I  don't  fear  the  result.  I  have  found 
but  one  man  as  yet  who  seemed  frightened  on  the-subject,  and 
when  I  told  him.'that  the  Dutch  had  taken  Holland,  his  aston- 
ishment was  fearful.  I  say  I  don't  fear  tho  result,  for  when  I 
truthfully  say  to  a  soldier  who  has  fought  for  his  country,  that, 
notwithstanding  all  this  clamor  about  negro  Supremacy,  and 
Africanizing  the  South  by  disfranchising  the  whites ;  I  say, 
when  I  tell  him  there  is  not  a  living  'soul  disfranchised  who  has 
not  committed  perjury ;  that  it  is  false  that  the  act  discrimi- 
nates in  favor  of  the  black  man  against  the  white,  but  in  favor 
of  loyalty,  white  and  black,  against  disloyalty  and  perjury, 
white,  black,  and  blue,  he  will  be  content.  It  is  but  a 
dayor  two  since  I  had  a  talk  with  a  Union  soldier.  He 
was  one  whose  prejudices  were  strong  against  the  negro,  but 
still  a  man  of  sense,  a  patriot  without  guile,  and  of  undying 
devotion  to  the  Union.  "I  hate  a  negro,"  said  he,  "and  don't 
wan't  him  to  vote,  but  I  hate  a  traitor  to  his  country  still  more; 
I  love  to  hate  the  dirty  dog,  and  between  the  two  I  am  for  the 
man  that  stands  by  the  flag,  black  though  he  may  be.  Besides, 
they  used  the  negro  against  us  ;  they  compelled  him  to  raise  the 
crops  that  fed  the  rebel  army,  without  which  the  rebellion  could 
not  have  progressed  a  day ;  they  compelled  him  to  build  fortifi- 
cations behind  which  the  rebels* fought,  and  they  would,  if  they 
could,  have  compelled  him  to  take  the  musket  and  fight  by  their 
side  :  but  tho  negro  thought  that  carrying  the  joke  too  far  and 
begged  to  be  excused,  and,  instead,  sought  opportunities  to  aid 
us  and  give  us  useful  information  and  do  U3  good,  and  now  if  it 
is  necessary  to  use  the  negro  a  little  the  other  way,  who  has  the 
right  to  complain?  I  am  not  in  favor  of  the  negro  voting," 
continued  he,  "if  it  could  be  well  avoided,  but  if  it  be  necessary 
to  prevent  the  loyal  white  man  from  being  crushed  between  the 
upper  and  nether  millstones,  and  ground  to  bug  dust.  I  am  in 
for  it— Jt  is  but  compelling  the  rebs  to  take  a  little  of  their  own 
medicine.  To  see  a  negro  vote  is  not  what  I  want ;  nor  do  I 
want  to  stand  by  and  see  a  rebel  crush  the  life  out  of  a  loyal 
white  man,  and  of  tho  two  evils  I  shall  choose  the  least.  Be- 
sides that,  Andrew  Johnson  and  Pendleton  are  both  on  the 
record  in  favor  of  a  negro  voting  provided  he  can  read  and 
write,  but  I  can't  see  that  a  negroes  literature  improves  his 
flavor  or  changes  his  wool  into  hair.  One  thing,"  continued  he. 
"that  recommends  the  Congressional  plan  to  me  is  that  its  de- 
feat would  be  delightful  and  heavenly  in  the  sight  of  every 
rebel  and  traitor  in  tho  land.  There  was  not  a  man  who  went 
into  the  rebellion,  unless  in  sack  cloth  and  ashes  he  has  repented 
of  his  course,  nor  a  guerilla  who  murdered  wounded  Union 
gpldlers  in feold  blood  after  they  had   surrendered  and  given  up 


.  Qis,aova  bus '.:  whacker  who  frum  amba-di  mur. 
Provost  Marshal,  nor  a  deserter  a  draft  sneak,  nor  a  bounty 
jumper,  nor  a  rebel  of  any  hue  or  color,  who  struck  at  the  flag 
of  his  country,  and  still  hates  it,  who  would  not  join  in  the 
mighty  chorus  of  rejoicing  if  it  should  be i  defeated.  As  for 
Africani/dng  the'South,"  said  he,. "that  cry  is  absurd;  The  job 
is  already  done,  and,  has  been  dene  a  hundred  years  ;  and  all 
efforts-at  un-Africa.ni/dng,  except  by  the  bleaching  process,  that 
these  lords  of  creation  have  taken  to  so  kindly,  have  proved 
abortive;  and  I  don't  favor  the  bleaching,  because  the  remedy 
is  worse  than  tho  disease." 

This  subj-ect  has  various  aspects.  It  has  lately  been  treated 
by  Governor  Morton  with  amazing  power.  Let  me  atone  for 
my  own  defects  by  reproducing  portions  bearing  upon  these 
topics  of  that  masterly  and  unanswerable  sp> 

"And  I  now  propound  this  proposition;  that  if  Congress, 
after  deliberation,  after  long  and  bloody  experience,  shall  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  loyal  State  governments  can  not  be 
erected  and  maintained  in  the  rebel  States  upon  the  basis  of  the 
white  population,  it  lias,  a  right  to  rise  up  and  make  voters  of  a 
cla^s  of  men  who  had  no  right  to  vote  under  the  laws  of  the  States. 
This  is  simply  the  us  j  of  tho  necessary  means  in  the  execution  of 
the  guaranty.  If  we  have  found  after  repeated  trials  that  loyal 
Republican  State  governments— governments  that  shall  answer 
the  purpose  that  such  governments  are  intended  to  answer — can 
not  be  successfully  founded  upon  the  basis  of  the  white  popula- 
tion, because  the  great  majority  of  that  population  are  disloyal 
then  Congress  has  a  right  to  raise  up  a  new  loyal  voting  popu- 
lation for  the  purpose  of  establishing  those  governments  in  the 
execution  of  the  guaranty.  I  think,  sir,  this  popesition  is  so 
clear  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  elaborate  it.  We  are  ..not  re- 
quired to  find  in  the  Constitution  a  particular  giant  of  power 
for  this  purpose  ;  but  we  find  a  general  grant  of  power,  and  we 
find  also  another  grant  of  power  authorizing  us  to  use  whatever 
means  may  be  necessary  to  enforce  the  first;  and  we  find  that 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  has  said  that  the  judg- 
ment of  Congress  upon  this  subject  shall  be  conclusive,  tha^  it 
cannot  be  reviewed  by  the  courts;  that  it  is  a  purely  political 
matter;  and  therefore  the  determination  of  Congre~s,*that  rais- 
ing up  colored  men  to  theriglit  of  suffrage  is  a  means  necessary 
to  the  execution  of  that  power,  is  a  determination  which  cannot 
be  l'U'iewed  by  the  courts,  and  is  conclusive  upon  the  peopl)  of 
the  country." 

Sir,  when  Congress  entered  upon  the  work,  it  had.  become  ap- 
parent to  all  men  that  loyal  republican  State  governments  could 
not  be  erected  and  maintained  on. the  basis  of  white  population. 
We  had  tried  them,  Congress  had  attempted  the  work  of  re- 
construction through  the  constitutional  amendment  by  leaving 
the  Suffrage  with  tho  white  men,  and  by  leaving  with  the  white 
people  of  the  South  the  question  as  to  when  the  colored  people 
should  exercise  the  right  of  suffrage,  if  ever ;  but  when  it  was 
found  that.those  white  men  were  as  rebellious  as  ever,  that  they 
hated  this  Government  more  bitterly  than  ever;  when  it  was 
found  that  they  persecuted  the  loyal  men,  both  white  and  black, 
in  their  midst ;  when  it  Was  found  that  Northern  men  who  had 
gone  down  there  were  driven  out  by  social  tyranny,  by  a  thou- 
sand annoyances,  by  the  insecurity  of  life  and  property- 
then  it  became  apparent  to  all  men  of  intelligence  that  recon- 
struction could  not  take  place  upon  the  basis  of  the  white 
population,  and  something  else  must  be  done. 

Now,  sir,  what  was  there  left  to  do  ?  Either  we  must  hold 
these  people  continually  by  military  power,  or  wo  must  use 
such  machinery  upon  such  a  new  basis  as  would  enable  loyal 
republican  State  governments  to  be  raised  up  ;  and  in  the  last 
resort,  and  I  will  say  Congress  waited  long,  the  nation  waited 
long,  experience  had  to  come  to  the  rescue  of  reason  before  the 
thing  was  done— in  the  last  resort,  and  as  the  last  thing  to  be 
done,  Congress  determined  to  dig  through  all  the  rubbish— dig 
through  the  soil  and  shiftless  sands,  and  go  down  to  the  eter- 
nal rock,  and  there,  upon  the  basis  of  theeveidasting  principle  of 
equal  and  exact  justice  to  all  men,  we  have  planted  the  column 
of  reconstruction ;  and,  sir,  it  will  arise  slowly  but  surely, 
and  "the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it.'"        *        * 

The  burden  of  his  speech  yesterday  was  that  the  reconstruct- 
ion measures  of  Congress  are  intended  to  establish  negro  suprem- 
acy. Sir,  this  proposition  is  without  any  foundation  whatever. 
I  believe  it  was  stated  yesterday  by  the  Senator  from  Illinois 
(Mr.  Trumbull)  that  in  every  State  but  two  the  white  voters 
registered  out-numbered  the  colored  voters;  and  tho  fact  that 
in  two  States  tho  colored  voters  out-numbered  the  white  voters 
is  owing  to  tho  simple  accident  that  there  are  more  colored  men 
in  those  States  than  there  is  white  men.  Congress  has  not 
sought  to  establish  negro  supremacy,  nor  has  it  sought  toestab- 
lish  the  supremacy  of  any  class  or  paa-ty  of  men.  If  it  had 
sought  to  establish  negro  supremacy  it  would  have  been  an 
easy  matter  by  excluding  from  the  right  of  suffrage  all  men 
who  ha*  been  concerned  in  the  rebellion,  in  accordance  with 
the  proposition  of  the  distinguished  Senator  from  Massachu- 
setts,. (Mr.  Sumner,)  in  his  speech  at  Worcester,  in  1865,  He 
proposed  to  exclude  all  men  who  had  been  concerned  in  the 
rebellion  and  confer  suffrage  only  on  those  who  were  left.  That 
would  have  established  negro  supremacy  by  giving  the  negroes 
an  overwhelming  majority  in  every  State  ;  and  if  that  had  been 
the  object  of  Congress  it  could  have  been  readily  done.  But, 
sir,  Congress  has  only  sought  to  divide  the  political  power  be- 
tween the  loyal  and  the  iisloyal.  It  has  disfranchised  some 
fifty  thousand  disloyal  leaders,  leaving  all  the  rest  of  the  people 
to  vote.  They  have  been  enfranchised  on  both  sides,  that 
neither  should  be  placed  in  the  power  of  the  other.    The  rebels . 


have  the  right  to  vote  so  that  they  shall  not  be  under  the  control 
and  power  of  tho  Union  men  only,  and  the  Union  men  have 
been  allowed  to  vote  so  that  they  shall  not  bo  under  the  contTel 
and  power  of  the  rebels.  This  is  the  policy,  to  divide  the  polit- 
ical power  among  those  men  for  the  protection  of  each.  Sir, 
the  charge  that  we  intend  to  create  a  negro  supremacy,  or  col- 
oredJStato  governments  is  Without  the  slightest  foundation,' for 
it  would  have  been  in  the  power  of  Congi'oss  to  have  easily  con- 
ferred such  supremacy  by  simply  excluding  tin*  disloyal  from 
the  right  of  suffrage— a  power  which  it  had  the  clearest  right  to 
exercise. 

Now,  Mr.  President,  allow  me  to  consider  for  a  moment  the 
amendment  offered  by  the  Senator  from  Wisconsin,  and  upon 
which  his  speeth  was  made,  and  see  what  is  its  effect — I  will  not 
say  its  pmpese,  but  its  inevitable  effect— should  it  become  a 
law.  I  will  ask  the  Secretary  to  read  the  amendment  which 
the  Senator  from  Wisconsin  has  proposed  to  the  Senate. 

The  Secretary  read  as  follows  : 

"  Provided,  nevertheless,  That  upon  an  election  for  the  ratifica- 
tion of  any  constitution,  or  of  officers  nuder  the  same,  previous  to 
its  adoption  in  any  State,  no  person  not  having  the  qualifications 
of  an  elector  under  tho  constitution  and  laws  of  such  State 
previous  to  the  late  rebellion,  shall  be  allowed  to  vote,  unless 
he  shall  possess  one  of  the  following  qualifications,  namely  : 

"1.  He  shall  have  served  as  a  soldier  in  the  Federal  army- 
one  year  or  more. 

"  \1.  He  shall  have  sufficient  education  to  read  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States  and  to  subscribe  his  name  to  an  oatk 
to  support  the  same. 

"3.  lie  shall  be  seized  in  his  own  right,  or  in  the  right  of 
his  wife,  of  a  freehold  of  the  value  of  $250." 

Mr.  Morton.  Sir,  these  qualifications  are,  by  tho  terms  of 
the.  amendment,  to  apply  to  those  who  were  not  authorized  to 
vote  by  the  laws  of  the  State  before  the  rebellion — in  other 
words,  the  colored  men.  He  proposes  to  allow  a  colored  man 
to  vote  if  he  has-  been  in  the  Federal  army  one  year,  and  he 
proposes  to  allow  a  rebel  white  man  to""vote,  although  he  has 
served  in  the  rebel  array  four  years  !  He  proposes  that  a  col- 
ored man  shall  not  vote  unless  be  has  sufficient  education  to 
read  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  subscribe  his 
name  to  an  oath  to  support  the  same  ;  whereas  he  permits  a 
rebel  white  man  to  vote  who  never  heard  of  A,  and  does  not 
know  how  to  make  his  mark  even  to  a  note  given  for  whisky. 
[Laughter.]  *  *  *  *  *  *  $ 

And,  Sir,  nobody  concurred  in  that  result  more  heartily  than 
I  did.  I  confess  (and  I  do  it  without  shame)  that  I  have  been 
educated  by  the  great  events  of  the  war.  The  American  people 
have  been  ^educated  rapidly;  and  the  man  who  says  he  has 
learned  nothing,  that  he  stands  now  where  he  did  six  years 
ago,  is  like  an  an  ancient  mile-post  by  the  side  of  a  deserted 
highway.  We,  Mr.  President,  have  advanced  step  by  step. 
When  this  war  began  we  did  not  contemplate  the  destruction 
of  slavery.  I  remember  well  when  the  Crittenden  resolution 
was  passed,  declaring  that  tho  war  was  not  prosecuted  for  con- 
quest or  to  overturn  the  institutions  of  any  State,  I  know  that 
that  was  intended  as  an  assurance  that  slavery  should  not  be 
destroyed,  and  it  received  the  vote,  I  believe,  of  every  Repub- 
lican member  in  both  houses  of  Congress  ;  but  in  a  few  months 
after  that  time  it  was  found  by  the  events  of  the  war  that  we 
could  not  preservo  slavery  and  suppress  the  rebellion,  and  we 
must  destroy  slavery— not  prosecute  tho  war  tc  destroy  slavery, 
but  destroy  slavery  to  prosecute  the  war.  Which  was  the  bet- 
ter? To  stand  by  the  resolution  and  let  the  Union  go,  or  stand 
by  the  Union  and  let  the  resolution  go  ?  Congress  could  not 
stand  by  that  pledge,  and  it  was  "  more  honored  in  the  breach 
than  the  observance." 

Sir,  there  is  one  great  difference  between  this  Union  party 
and  the  so-called  Democratic  party.  Our  principles  are  those 
of  humanity;  they  are  those  of  justice;  they  are  those  of 
equal  rights  ;  they  are  principles  that  appeal  to  the  hearts  and 
the  consciences  of  men  ;  while  on  the  other  side  we  hear  appeals 
to  the  prejudice  of  race  against  race.  The  white  man  is  over- 
whelmingly in  the  majority  in  this  country,  and  that  majority- 
is  yearly  increased  by  half  a  million  of  white  men  from  abroad, 
and  that  majority  is  gaining  in  proportion  from  year  to  year 
until  the  colored  men  will  finally  be  but  a  handful  in  this 
country  ;  and  yet  we  hear  the  prejudices  of  the  white  race  ap- 
pealed to  to  crush  this  other  race,  and  to  prevent  them  from 
rising  to  supremacy  and  power.  Sir,  there  is  nothing  noble, 
there  is  nothing  generous,  there  is  nothing  lovely  in  that  policy 
or  that  appeal.  How  does  that  principle  compare  with  ours  ? 
We  are  standing  on  the  broad  platform  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  that  all  men  are" created  equal ;  that  they  are  en- 
dowed by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights;  that 
among  these  are  life,  liberty,  a^d  the  pursuit  of  happiness." 
We  say  that  these  rights  are  not  given  by  laws  ;  are  not  given 
by  the  Constitution  ;  but  they  are  the  gift  of  God  to  every  man 
born  in  the  world.  Oh,  sir,  how  glorious  is  this  great  principle  ■ 
compared  with  the  inhuman — I  might  say  heathenish — appeal 
to  the  prejudices  of  race  against  race;  the  endeavor  further  to 
excite  the  strong  against  the  weak ;  the-endeavor  further  to  de- 
prive the  weak  of  their  rights  of  protection  against  the  strong. 

While  reading  the  remarks  of  Governor  Morton,  and  consid- 
ering the  amendment  of  Mr.  Doolittle,  who  is,  I  think,  a  minister 
of  the  gospel,  it  occurred  to  me  that  to  make  it  a  penitentiary 
offense  to  teach  a  man  the  alphabet,  and  then  refuse  him  the 
ballot  because  he  cannot  read,  and  never  wrote  an  epic  poem, 
challenges  the  admiration  of  the  gods,  and  combines  and  unites 
all  that  is  lovely  and  beautiful  and  heavenly  in  Christianity  and 
statesmanship.    It  is  like  witholding  the  lamp  of  life  from  a  be- 


nighted  soul  and. then  sending  him  to  the  black  regions  of  des- 
pair because  ho  is  in  darkness. 

What,  after  all,  is  this  thing  of  granting  the  ballot  to  the 
negro  and  loyal  white  man  down  South,  but  a  declaration  that 
the  loyal  people  who  saved  the  Government  from  disunion  and 
ruin,  and  brought  it  safely  through  the  recent  struggle,  who 
saved  it  in  war,  are  alone  entitled  to  administer  it  in  time  of 
peace  ;  what,  but  prefering  to  trus*  the  Government  to  loyal  in- 
stead of  disloyal  agents,  a  declaration  that  the  interests  of  the 
eountry  and  control  of  its  Government  cannot  safely  be  en- 
trusted to  the  men  whose  sole  effort  during  the  bloody  four 
years  rebellion,  was  to  thwart  all  means  for  the  preservation  of 
its  existence.  What  did  Andrew  Johnson  mean  when  he  said 
that  treason  must  be  made  odious  and  traitors  take  back  seats, 
and  if  there  were  but  a  few  loyal  men  in  a  State  they  were  enti- 
tled to  govern  to  the  exclusion  of  rebels.  Is  there  any  way  of 
making  treason  more  odious  than  to  have  it  understood  that  a 
traitor  is  not  as  good  as  a  negro  ?  Whenever  he  shall  call  upon 
me  he  shall  have  a  certificate  to  that  effect,  under  my  hand  and 
seal,  without  fee  or  reward. 

Is  not  that  a  good  way  of  inviting  traitors  to  take  back  seats? 
We  have  not  gone  so  far  as  these  declarations  go.  We  do  not 
exclude  from  the  polls  all  who  fought  against  the  flag,  but  only 
the  ring-leaders  who  are  steeped  to  the  lips  in  the  crime  of  per- 
jury as  well  as  treason.  Instead  of  making  treason  odious  and 
compelling  traitors  to  take  back  seats,  we  have  now  the  propo- 
sition submitted  by  the  Democratic  party  to  abandon  the  iried 
and  true  Union  men  of  the  rebel  States  to  the  cruel  and  unre- 
lenting dessotism  that  for  yeais  has  sought  to  crush  them  down 
by  every  form  of  tyranny  known  to  civilized  or  savage  man— 
from  doing  which  we  beg  to  be  excused.  It  is  not  the  enter- 
tainment to  which  we  were  invited. 

We  will  not  abandon  the  men  who  stood  by  their  country 
in  the  day  of  her  greatest  need,  and  if  they  can  not  be  sufficient- 
ly protected  without  the  aid  of  the  loyal  black  man's  ballot,  we 
will  not  be  so  base  as  to  refuse  that.  When  the  true  and  faith- 
ful black  man  at  the  dead  hour  of  midnight  come  crawling  into 
my  camp,  on  his  hands  and  knees,  to  give  me  information  of  the 
movements  of  the  enemy,  which  he  did  do  at  the  price  of  his  life, 
on  more  occasions  than  one,  I  did  not  refuse  his  aid,  but  availed 
myself  of  it  and  felt  grateful;  and  now  shall  we  refuse  his  aid 
and  scornfully  reject  it  when  we  see  no  other  way  of  protecting 
the  true  and  faithful  white  men  who  fought  and  bled  that  the 
nation  might  live  and  not  die  by  traitor  hands  ?    God  forbid  ! 

During  the  progress  of  the  rebellion,  as  we  penetrated  the  en- 
emy's country,  we  found  some  loyal  men,  who  aided  us  much, 
and  were  eager  to  do  whatever  they  could  to  promote  the  suc- 
cess of  the  glorious  old  flag.  In  doing  so,  they  of  course  com- 
promised themselves  and  incurred  the  hate  of  those  in  whose 
midst  fhey  lived.  When  I  was  ordered  to  leave  a  town  wherein 
my  troops  had  been  stationed,  such  persons  as  these  have  come 
to  me  and  begged  me  in  God's  name,  and  with  tears,  to  stay; 
that  if  the  troops  were  withdrawn,  they,  on  account  of  their 


friendship  to  us,  would  be  murdered,  their  houses  burned 
down,  and  their  wives  and  little  ones,  without  home  or  shelter, 
turned  out  to  starve.  I  never  could  resist  such  appeals,  and 
thank  God,  as  I  hope  for  mercy  never  tried  to.  To  such  I  have 
said,  when  I  could  do  no  better,  follow  the  troops  ;  I  will  furn- 
ish a  wagon  for  your  wife  and  children,  and  provisions  as  long 
as  our  Commissary  has  any,  and  as  long  after  that  as  I  have  a 
crust  of  bread  in  my  haversack,  and  as  soon  as  possible  I  will 
try  and  have  troops  sent  so  that  you  can  return  to  your  home 
in  safety.  I  presume  every  Union  officer  who  has  ever  com- 
manded a  division  and  penetrated  the  enemy's  country  could 
state  the  same  thing.  Now  suppose  the  Union  officers,  instead 
of  affording  protection  in  these  cases  as  far  as  he  could  had  told 
these  people  to  take  care  of  themselves,  that  they  might  be  in 
danger,  but  that  was  not  his  look  out,  and  had  gone  away  and 
left  them  to  to  be  murdered.  Such  conduct  would  be  very  lit- 
tle worse,  in  my  opinion,  than  what  we  are  now  asked  to  do; 
the  cases  are  nearly  parallel.  We  are  now  asked  to  leave  the 
loyal  white  men  of  the  South  at  the  mercy  of  this  6elf-same  set 
of  cut-throats,  and  because  we  won't  do  it,  because  we  would 
see  the  rage  of  democracy  fanned  into  a  burning  flame  before  we 
would  consent  to  so  mean  and  disgraceful  a  thing,  they  raise  the 
cry,  and  all  unite  in  one  stupendous  yell,  that  wo  are  attempt- 
ing to  trample  the  bleeding  Constitution  under  foot,  and  Africa- 
nize the  South.  Such  howling  don't  frighten  me,  nor  don't 
frighten  the  people.  They  may  not  favor  negro  suffrage,  but 
they  will  see  the  necessity  for  it  in  the  rebel  States  and  acqui- 
esence.  They  will  see  it  is  but  a  choice  of  evils  negro  suffrage 
or  a  state  of  things  but  little  better  than  the  rebellion  itself,  and 
of  the  two  evils  they  will  choose  the  least.  They  will  not  be 
frightened  by  this  howling  of  traitors,  because  they  remember 
the  advice  Andrew  Johnson  gave,  as  to  these  very  fellows,  that 
whenever  we  saw  or  heard  a  fellow  weeping  or  howling  over  the 
bleeding  Constitution  to  spot  him  as  a  traitor.  He  knew  that 
such  tears  were  as  hypocritical  as  those  shed  by  Judas  at  the 
waste  of  the  precious  ointment  with  which  Mary  anointed  the 
feet  of  the  Savior.  He  said  why  was  not  this  ointment  sold  for 
300  pence  and  given  to  the  poor,  not  that  he  cared  for  the  poor, 
but  because  he  was  a  thief  and  held  the  bag. 

After  General  Dumont  had  concluded,  Judge  Hughes,  Gov- 
ernor Dunning  and  Hon.  D.  C.  Branham,  each  were  called  upon 
and  made  excellent  addresses  at  length.  '« 

The  following  resolutions  were  adopted : 

Resolved,  That  the  earnest  thanks  of  this  Convention  be  tend- 
ered to  Mr.  J.  T.  Wright,  the  late  Chairman  of  the  State  Cen- 
tral Committee,  for  the  able  and  disinterested  manner  in  which 
he  discharged  his  difficult  duties. 

Resolved,  That  the  proceedings  of  this  Convention,  together 
with  the  able  arguments  of  Governor  Baker  and  the  Beveral 
speeches  of  the  occasion  be  published  in  pamphlet  form,  and  cir- 
culated as  a  campaign  document. 

The  Convention  then  adjourned  sine  die,  to  meet  at  the  polls 
with  three  hundred  thousand  more  Republicans  next  October. 


SKETCHES  OF  THE  CANDIDATES. 


FOR  GOVERNOR — COL.  CONRAD  BAKER. 

Col.  Conrad  Baker,  our  nominee  for  Governor,  is  the  present 
incumbent  of  that  office,  acting  in  the  vacancy  occasioned  by 
the  election  of  Gov.  0.  P.  Morton  to  the  United  States  Senate.  He 
was  born  in  Franklin  county,  Pennsylvauia,  February  12,  1817, 
in  that  period  succeeding  the  close  of  the  second  and  last  war 
with  Great  Britain.  He  studied  law  at  Gettysburg,  and  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  the  spring  of  1839,  when  just  past  his 
twenty-second  year.  At  that  time  the  opponents  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party  were  divided  into  two  parties,  the  Whigs  and  Anti- 
Masons.  Mr.  Baker  attaching  himself  to  the  former,  prefer- 
ring to  base  his  political  affiliation  upon  the  score  of  principle 
rather  than  upon  the  intense  excitement  raised  by  the  Morgan 
affair,  based  upon  nothing  but  personal  and  private  rancor.  Mr. 
Baker  was  a  supporter  of  Henry  Clay,  and  was  chosen  as  a 
Whig  delegate  from  Adams  county  to  the  Whig  State  Conven- 
tion, which  was  held  at  Chambersburg  in  the  summer  of  1839, 
where  resolutions  were  passed  favoring  Mr  Clay  for  the  Presi- 
dency. Mr.  Baker  practiced  law  in  Gettysburg  Iwo  years,  and 
in  1841  removed  to  Evansville,  in  this  State,  of  which  city  he 
remained  a  citizen  until  his  official  duties  required  his  removal 
to  the  Capital. 

In  the  year  1845  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives of  Indiana,  from  the  county  of  Vanderburg,  serv- 
ing his  constituents  and  the  whole  State  faithfully  for  one  sea- 
son. In  1862  he  was  elected  Common  Pleas  Judge,  but  resigned 
after  serving  one  year.  At  the  first  State  Convention  held  un- 
der the  party  organization  known  as  Republican,  Mr.  Baker 
was  selected  as  the  candidate  for  Lieutenant  Governor,  with 
Oliver  P.  Morton  as  the  standard-bearer  of  the  new  and  untried 
party  which  dared  to  enter  the  political  arena,  and  upon  the 
question  of  principle,  to  fight  the  well  organized  and  thoroughly 
drilled  Democracy.  The  gallant  fight  made  by  the  Republicans 
in  1856 is  well  known,  but  its  young  hosts  were  not  quite  strong 
enough,  and  Mr.  Baker  was  defeated  by  his  opponent,  Abram 
A.  Hammond.  Four  years  of  experience  on  the  one  hand  and 
four  of  quasi  treason  on  the  other,  served  to  place  the   party 


with  which  Mr.  Baker  was  identified,  in  power;  succeeding 
which,  the  rebellion  in  the  South  was  commenced  in  the  inter- 
ests of  the  defeated  Democracy. 

Among  the  foremost  in  civil  life,  the  first  call  to  arms  found 
Mr.  Baker  ready  for  whatever  duty  was  assigned  him.  He  en- 
tered the  military  service  in  July,  1861,,  and  remained  until  the 
end  of  his  term  of  service,  being  mustered  out  in  Septemper, 
1864.  He  was  in  the  field  from  August,  1801,  to  April,  1863,  at 
which  date  he  was  ordered  by  the  War  Department  to  report 
for  duty  at  Indianapolis,  to  organize  the  Provost  Marshal  Gen- 
eral's Bureau  for  Indiana,  accomplishing  which  he  served  as 
assistant  Provost  Marshal  General  for  the  State,  from  May  1st, 
1663,  to  August  20th,  1864,  just  preceding  his  muster  qut. 

Col.  Baker  was  selected  as  the  Republican  candidateror  Lieu- 
tenant Governor  in  1864,  after  General  Kimball  had  declined  the 
position  to  which  he  was  nominated  by  the  Convention.  He 
entered  into  the  canvass  with  ardor,  and  after  eight  years  of 
most  eventful  peace  and  still  more  eventful  war,  the  whirligig  of 
time  saw  the  defeated  ticket  in  1856— Morton  and  Baker— tri- 
umphantly elected  by  a  majority  of  over  twenty  thousand  of 
the  popular  votes. 

Of  Col.  Baker's  military  career  it  is  not  necessary  to  speak. 
The  brief  mention  made  calls  to  mind  the  glories  and  disasters, 
the  successes  and  the  defeats,  of  the  first  three  years  of  the  re- 
bellion. In  common  with  hundreds  of  thousands  or  names, 
Baker's  stands  in  that  honored  scroll  of  national  defenders, 
while  his  opponent,  Thomas  A.  Hendricks,  was  in  the  United 
States  Senate,  with  his  arms  folded,  doing  nothing  for  if  noth- 
ing against  his  country,  in  the  hour  of  its  most  deadly  need. 

Col.  Baker's  political  record  is  briefly  this  : 

Ho  voted  for  General  Harrison  in  1840. 

He  voted  for  .Henry  Clay  in  1844. 

He  voted  for  Zachary  Taylor  in  1848. 

He  voted  for  General  Scott  in  1852. 

He  voted  for  John  C.  Fremont  in  1856. 

He  voted  for  Abraham  Lincoln  in  1860  and  in  1864 


31 


To  Governor  Baker  is  conceded  high  talents  as  a  lawyer  and 
an  executive  ;  strict  integrity  of  purpose  and  unsullied  personal 
and  official  honor  ;  his  party  enemies  respect  him  and  treat  his 
words  and  acts  with  no  slight  or  contumely.  He  is  known  all 
over  the  State  as  a  gontleman  of  unblemished  moral  character, 
while  his  administration  of  the  affairs  of  the  Executive  Depart- 
ment, as  Lieutenant  Governor,  has  been  conceded  to  be  emi- 
nently satisfactory. 

-    FOR.   LIEUTENANT    GOVERNOR — HON.    WILL   CUMBACK. 

Hon.  Will  Cumback  is  a  native  of  Indiana.  He  was  born  in 
Franklin  County,  March  24,  1829.  His  father  was  »  farmer, 
and  young  Cumback  worked  on  the  fcrm  until  seventeen  years 
of  age,  going  to  the  common  school  about  three  months  in  the 
year.  Having  acquired  what  instruction  he  could  in  the  com- 
mon school,  he  determined  to  go  to  College,  and  having  no 
money,  and  his  father  being  unable  to  keep  him,  he  rented  two 
fields  of  ground  and  raised  a  crop  of  oats,  nauled  the  oats  to 
Cincinnati  in  a  wagon,  and  sold  them  for  fifteen  cents  a  bushel. 
After  all  expenses  and  purchasing  his  outfit  for  College,  includ- 
ing books  and  clothes,  he  had  but  $14.75,  and  upon  that  sum  ho 
went  three  months  to  College,  ringing  the  College  bell  to  pay  for 
his  tuition,  firewood,  and  room  rent,  and  cooking  his  own  victu- 
als in  his  room.  He  stood  at  the  head  of  his  class,  and  had  more 
friends  than  any  boy  in  College.  When  his  means  were  ex- 
hausted he  taught  school  awhile,  got  a  little  money,  and  returned 
to  College  again,  but  finding  this  process  too  slow  for  his  impul- 
sive nature,  he  commenced  the  study  of  law  while  teaching 
school,  and  was  soon  admitted  to  the  Bar,  and  after  attending  a 
course  of  law  lectures  ill  Cincinnati  he  commenced  the  practice 
of  law  in  Greensburg,  Indiana.  As  a  lawyer  he  has  never  been 
known  to  advise  any  body  to  go  to  law  except  in  self-defense, 
and  has  always  refused  to  be  employed  in  any  case  where  it  was 
the  purpose  to  practice  a  wrong  on  the  other  party.  Add  to 
this  his  well-known  character  for  truth  and  honesty,  and  his 
ability  as  an  advocate,  as  might  be  expected,  he  is  very  success- 
ful in  his  business,  and  has  a  rapidly  increasing  practice. 

In  1854  Mr.  Cumback  was  unanimously  nominated  for  Con- 
gress by  hi3  party  friends  in  his  large  district,  and  although  but 
25  years  of  age,  he  met  on  the  stump  an  experienced  and  able 
politician  of  the  opposition,  and  astonished  both  his  enemies 
and  friends  with  his  ability  as  a  stump  orator.  He  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  34th  Congress,  and  although  the  youngest  member  in 
the  House  he  soon  took  high  rank  as  an  able  debater.  His  first 
effort  was  on  the  resolution  to  investigate  the  frauds  in  the  elec- 
tions in  Kansas,  and  Horace  Greeley,  who  was  then  reporter  for 
the  New  York  Tribune,  spoke  more  highly  of  his  effort  than  any 
other  speech  made  on  the  question.  His  speech  was  widely  cir- 
culated through  the  leading  journals  of  the  country. 

In  1S60  he  accepted  the  position  of  Elector  for  the  State  at 
Large,  and  spent  the  summer  in  that  memorable  canvass  in 
Indiana,  and  by  the  force  of  his  eloquence  contributed  a  full 
share  to  the  success  of  his  party.  He  had  the  honor,  being  the 
first  on  the  Electoral  ticket,  to  cast  the  first  Electoral  vote  of 
his  State  against  that  "sum  of  all  vilainies,"  the  institution  of 
slavery,  of  which  he  was  always  a  most  earnest  and  sincere 
opponent. 

At  the  breaking  out  of  the  rebellion  he  enlisted  as  a  private 
soldier,  and  soon  after  was  appointed  a  paymaster  in  the  army, 
and  was  appointed  to  the  charge  of  a  large  district,  and  had  a 
large  number  of  officers  to  report  to  him  for  duty.  He  had  the 
confidence  of  all  the  officers  and  men  in  his  department.  And 
the  troops  in  his  department  were  more  promptly  paid  than  in 
any  other  district  in  the  country,  and  when  the  Government 
did  not  send  funds  fast  enough  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  sol- 
diers, he  would  borrow  money  on  his  own  responsibility,  and 
his  word  was  often  taken  for  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  dollars  at 
the  banks  with  no  security  whatever.  He  received  and  dis- 
bursed while  in  the  service  sixty  millions  of  dollars,  and  so 
accurately  and  honestly  had  he  kept  his  accounts  that  when  he 
asked  to  be  mustered  out  he  was  enabled  to  settle  his  accounts 
and  balance  his  books  in  three  days,  which  was  a  matter  of 
astonishment  to  the  devotees  of  red  tape  at  Washington. 

Two  j  ears  ago  he  was,  without  his  knowledge,  nominated  by 
a  large  convention  of  his  neighbors  to  represent  his  county  in 
the  State  Senate.  He  was  elected,  and  took  his  seat  in  the  Leg- 
islature for  the  first  time  in  his  life.  Soon  after  the  commence- 
ment of  the  session  he  was  chosen  President  of  the  Senate,  and 
his  ability  and  impartiality  were  freely  acknowledged  by  both 
political  friends  and  opponents.  Mr.  Cumback's  frank,  genial 
and  hopeful  manner,  combined  with  his  acknowledged  ability, 
always  inspires  confidence  among  his  confidence  among  his 
friends,  and  constitute  him  an  admirable  leader  in  public  affairs. 

FOR  SECRETARY  OF   STATE — MAJ.   MAX   F.   A.   HOFFMAN. 

Dr.  Hoffman  was  born  at  Jena,  Grand  Duchy  of  Saxe  Wimear, 
Eisenach,  Germany,  on  the. 31st  of  December,  1832.  His  father 
was  professor  of  Theology  and  Oriental  Languages  at  the  Uni- 
versity, and  gave  his  three  sons,  of  whom  the  subject  of  our 
sketch  is  the  youngest,  the  advantages  of  an  early  and  thorough 
education.  After  having  attained  his  14th  year  the  Doctor  was 
sent  to  Eisenach  to  attend  the  Gymnasium  one  of  the  very  best 
in  the  country.  He  finished  there  his  Classical  and  Philosoph- 
ical studies,  graduated,  and  returned  to  Jena,  where  he  com- 
menced his  medical  studies.  After  two  years  study  there  he 
visited  the  Universities  of  Wurzburg  and  Erlangen,  at  which 
place  he  acquired  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Medicine.  Afterwards 
the  Doctor  spent  one  year  in  visiting  the  Medical  Faculties  at 


Vienna  and  Prague,  and  after  his  return  home  was  one  of  the 
Assistants  at  the  hospitals  of  his  native  city. 

In  1856  the  Doctor  emigrated  to  the  United  States,  arriving 
just  in  time  to  witness  the  memorable  Presidential  campaign  o"f 
said  year.  Having  been  a  Bepublican  in  Europe,  his  sympa- 
thies were  naturally  with  the  great  Bepublican  party  of  this 
country,  and  he  has  worked  with  zeal  for  the  success  of  this 
party  ever  since. 

In  1800,  after  having  lived  most  of  the  preceding  time  at 
Chicago,  the  Doctor  removed  to  Valparaiso,  Indiana,  where  he 
remained  until  he  was  commissioned  as  one  of  the  Assistant 
Surgeons  of  the  9th  Indiana  Volunteers,  with  which  command 
he  participated  in  all  the  campaigns  under  Buell,  Bosecrans 
and  Thomas  until  he  was,  in  1864,  commissioned  Surgeon  of  the 
128th  Beglment  Indiana  Volunteers,  in  which  capacity  he  served 
until  April,  1866,  when  the  Begiment  was  sent  home  from 
North  Carolina  to  be  mustered  out  of  service. 

After  his  return  home  the  Doctor  settled  at  Logansport, 
Indiana,  where  he  has  been  engaged  in  the  practice  of  his 
profession. 


FOR   AUDITOR   OF   STATE- 


AJ.   J.    D.   EVANS. 


Maj.  John  D.  Evans,  our  candidate  for  Auditor  of  State,  is  a 
Kentuckian  by  birth,  though  that  happened  at  such  an  early 
period  in  his  life,  that  he  has  no  distinct  recollection  of  the 
event,  and  would  feel  just  as  well  over  the  matter  if  he  had  been 
born  in  some  other  place.  At  the  commencement  of  the  war  he 
was  in  a  flourishing  mercantile  trade  in  Noblesville.  Up  to  that 
time  he  had  been  identified  with  the  Democratic  party.  When 
the  first  call  for  troops  was  made  by  the  President,  he  closed 
his  store  and  raised  the  first  company  that  was  accepted  from 
Indiana  in  the  three  month's  service,  of  which  he  was  made 
Captain. 

After  their  brief  term  of  service  had  expired  he  took  an  act- 
ive part  in  raising  the  89th  Indiana  regiment,  and  was  made 
Major  of  the  same,  in  which  capacity  he  continued  during  his 
term  of  service;  and  his  name  is  intimately  connected  with  all 
the  thrilling  history  of  that  famous  old  regiment  which  is  too 
familiar  to  all  our  people  to  need  rehearsing  now.  He  was 
never  a  candidate  for  any  office  before,  but  his  education,  which 
was  finished  at  Yellow  Springs,  Ohio,  and  his  fine  business  tal- 
ent, eminently  fit  him  for  the  duties  of  Auditor  of  State.  He 
is  33  years  of  age,  and  will  make  himself  known  to  the  whole 
State  during  the  pending  campaign. 

FOR  ATTORNEY   GENERAL— Oe4aNA   E.   WILLIAMSON. 

Hon.  Delana  E.  Williamson  was  born  in  Fleming  county, 
Kentucky,  is  now  in  his  45th  year,  commenced  the  practice  of 
law  in  Clay  county,  Indiana,  represented  the  county  in  the 
Indiana  Legislature.  Mr.  W.  was  in  politics  a  Douglas  Demo- 
crat until  the  firing  of  the  first  gun  of  the  rebellion ;  ever  since 
that  time  he  has  been  an  out  spoken  unflinching  Union  man, 
and  has  actively  co-operated  with  the  party  in  wort  and  deed. 
His  efficient  services  in  the  cause  of  the  Union  party  are  well 
known,  as  he  has  canvassed  the  larger  portion  of  the  State 
twice.  As  a  public  speaker  he  ranks  among  the  foremost  men 
in  Indiana. 

FOR  TREASURER  OF   STATE — GEN.   NATHAN  KIMBALL. 

General  Nathan  Kimball  was  born  at  Fredericksburg, 
Washington  County,  Indiana,  on  the  22d  of  November,  1822. 
His  father,  Nathaniel  Kimball,  located  in  Jeffersonville,  in  1816. 
His  mother  was  the  daughter  of  James  Ferguson,  who  settled 
in  Indiana  Territory  in  1796,  and  was  one  of  the  first  of  the 
hardy  band  of  pioneers  to  clear  the  way  through  Indian  warfare 
and  open  up  the  wilderness  for  future  settlement.  His  ancestry 
was  identified  with  the  earliest  history  of  the  West,  one  of  them 
being  that  old  and  successful  soldier,  General  George  Bogers 
Clark. 

He  was  left  an  orphan  at  the  age  of  six.  Keverses  in  business 
had  previously  swept  away  his  father's  estate,  and  all  young 
Nathan  had  left  him  for  an  heritage  was  an  honorable  name. 
Cared  for,  however,  by  his  relatives,  he  was  sent  to  school,  and 
at  the  age  of  ten  became  a  pupil  of  Hon.  John  I.  Morrison,  late 
Treasurer  of  State,  then  principal  of  the  Washington  -County 
Seminary,  remaining  under  his  tutelage  four  years.  In  1839  he 
became  a  student  in  the  Indiana  Asbury  University,  at  Gteen- 
castle,  for  a  short  time,  but  was  compelled  from  want  of  means, 
to  leave  his  studies  and  earn  his  bread  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow. 
In  1842  he  taught  school  in  Westport,  Missouri,  then  a  frontier 
town. 

In  the  struggles  of  his  earlier  years  was 'developed  the  firm- 
ness, self-reliance  and  integrity  of  his  nature.  He  returned  to 
his  native  State,  taught  school,  studied  medicine,  and  became 
one  of  the  most  successful  and  esteemed  practitioners  in  South- 
ern Indiana.     In  1844  he  cast  his  first  vote  for  Henry  Clay. 

When  the  war  with  Mexico  was  declared,  he  raised  a  company, 
was  elected  Captain,  and  left  for  the  seat  of  war  on  the  13th  of 
July,  1846.  In  the  battle  of  Buena  Vista  he  distinguished  him- 
self for  intrepidity  and  courage.  Soon  after  the  close  of  the  • 
war  his  friends  brought  him  out  as  Whig  candidate  for  the  State 
Senate  in  Washington  County,  where  his  party  were  hopelessly 
in  the  minority,  and  of  course  he  did  not  succeed. 

He  was  on  the  electoral  ticket  for  General  Scott,  and  can- 
vassed the  2d  District  with  his  opponent.  In  1856  he  was  for 
Fillmore,  and  in  i860  he  supported  Bell  and  Everett,  on  tha 
platform  of  "the  Union,  the  Constitution,  and  the  Laws,"  in 


the  hope  t'.;. 

s  and  prevent 

Immediately  upon  the  fall  of  Fort  Sum!  a  coni- 

pany Jot  .the  war,  ■<  .prain  on  tli  I  il,  1861, 

-  'olonel  of  th  i  Volun- 

1»  of  Instruction  at  Terro  Haute,  and  joined 

it.  Rich  Mountain,  West  Virginian     Alter  an 

ardooui  apaign  in  the  mountains,  he  was  attached  to 

don  at  Wine)  Ida  having  boon  wo 

the  command  devolved  on   Kimball,  who  won  a    most 
victory  ever  "Stonewall  "  .  ;  n  January,  I      - 

with  McClellan  before  Richmond.     In  the  great  battle  at 
tarn  he  especially  di  If,  successfully  holdi 

important     | 

.:'  since  so  celebrated  for  the  number  of  the  rebel  dead 
found  in  it,  was  immediately  in  Kimball's  front.  In  tiie  battle 
of  Fjje  lerickf  ,  be  was  severely  wounded 

in  the  thigh  by  a  cannisfer  shot.     In  three  mouths  afterwards 
he    was  with  Grant    at    Vicksburg.     In  Arkansas  he  superin- 
tended the  carrying  out  of  the  reconstruction  policy  of  Presi- 
dent Lincoln,  and  was  complimented  by  the  passage  of  a  Legis- 
lative resolution  of  commendation.    He  was  with  Sherman  in 
'/.is  grand  campaign  against  Atlanta,  was  in  the  thickest  of  the 
fight  in  the  battles  of  Ivenesaw  Mountain  and  Peach  Tree  ■ 
fought  with  terrible  effect  at  Franklin,  and  for  bravery  in  the 
battle  of  Nashville  was   made  a  Major  General.     From  i 
ginning  to  the  close  of  the  war  he  possessed  the  confidence  of  his 
superiors,  and  the  love  of  his  men.     Ordered  to   Texas   he  was 
■finally,  in  September,   1865,   mustertld   out  of  servi 
State  on  account  of  the  close  of  the  war. 

While  in  Arkansas  he  was  nominated  by  the  Republican 
ventiou  of  Indiana  for  Lieutenant  Governor,  but  declined,  pre- 
ferring to  give  his  services  to  (US  country  in  the  field  until  the 
rebellion  should  be  crushed. 

In  February,  1866,  he  received  the  Republican  nomination  for 
Treasurer  of  btate,  and  after  a  brilliant  canvass,  in  which  he 
was  one  of  the  most  effective  and  eloquent  speakers  in  the  field, 
he  was  triumphantly  elected.  He  has  discharged  the  duties  of 
his  trust  with  the  same  integrity  and  ability  that  has  heretofore 
characterized  his  public  and  private  life.  The  people  of  Indiana 
have  his  .past  Untarnished  record  as  his  guarantee  that 
in  future,  as  heretofore,  discharge  the  duties  incumbent  upon 
him  in  a  manner  at  once  creditable  to  himself,  and  beneficial  in  ' 
the  highest  degree  to  the  honor  and  prosperity  of  the  6 

FOR  CLERK   OF   THE   SUPREME   COURT — CAl'T.    XHEODOKE   W. 

Captain  McCoy  was  born  in  Fugit  township,  Decatur  c 
lnd.,  January  i  is  father,  Rev.  James  McCoy. 

School  Presbyterian  minister,  wa's  widely  known  thro- 
Southern,  Central,  and  Eastern  Indiana,  and  in  the  \  ) 
Valley,  in  his  ministerial  character.  He  was  an  original  ari^ 
slavery  man,  native  of  Kentucky,  and  was  well'tknown  for  his 
anti-slavery  views.  His  father  was  without  mean's  to  i 
him  as.  hc*earnestly  desired,  and  during  young  McCoy' 
demic  'days  at  Professors  J.  I.  Morrison's  and  M.  M.  C.  Hobbs's 
schooler  at  Salem,  lnd.,  he  was  compelled  to  supply  himself,  by 
his  own  efforts,  with  clothing  and  books,  by  manual  labor  in 
vacations. 

In  May,  1856,  having  prepared  for  college,  he  entered  Wabash 
College,  at  Crawfordsville,  where,  with  but  slight  assistance 
from  other  sources,  he  maintained  himself  until  the  com] 
of  the  first  term  of  the  Junior  year,  when  ill  health  rendered 
him  unable  to  proceed  with  his  college  course. 

Leaving  Wabash  College  at  the  close  of  1858,  he  taught  a  dis- 
trict school  in  Hamilton  county,  lnd.,  for  one  term,  and  was 
then  employed  in  the  seminary  at  Noblesville,  lnd.,  as  teacher 
in  the  male  department  of  the  high  school  for  a  year  and  a  half. 
Meanwhile  he  was  studying  law  under  the  instruction  of  Stone 
<%  Conner,  and  at  the  close  of  his  engagement  in  the  Seminary, 
devoted  his  whole  attention  to  legal  studies,  excepting  five 
months,  during  which  time  he  taught  school  at  Stumptown, 
Lawrence  township,  Marion  county,  lnd.  He  was  admitted  to 
the  practice  in  the  Hamilton  Circuit  Court.  March  term,  1861, 
entering  the  practice  as  a  partial  partner  of  J.  W.  Evans,  Esq. 
The  attack  on  Sumter  induced  him  to  enter  the  service  in  April, 
18G1,  enlisting  in  Captain  John  D.  Evans'  company,  which 
served  in  the  Sixth  Indiana  Regiment  in  the  three  months'  ser- 
vice. Returning  to  Indiana,  he  re-enlisted  as  a  private  in  Cap- 
tain Evans'  company,  recruited  for  the  Thirty-Ninth  Indiana 
Regiment  (Eighth  Cavalry).  Upon  the  organization  of  the  regi- 
ment, Evans  was  made  Major,  and  Mr.  McCoy  Second  Lieuten- 
ant of  his  old  company.  Promo  t  Lieutenant  in  the 
same  c'oinpany,  Nov.  1,  18G1.  Promoted  Captain  in  <h 
•  y,  May  22,  18C2,  at  Shiloh  Field,  Tennessee. 

in  McCoy  was  compelled  to  quit  the  service  on  account 
bical  disability  in  September,  1803,  and,  after  a  Wes  . 
b  of  several  mouths,  entered  the  political  campaign  of 
'186-1,  canvassing  a  large  part  of  Southern  Indiana.     He  located 
to  practice  law  at  Jeffersonville,  :       .  :,  at  which  i  I 

Capta  Republican,  and  in  his  boyish 

days  his  syin]  with  the  Whig  party.    He  is  an  excel- 

lent speaker,  and  will  do  gooH  service  during  the  campaign. 

?OBR  '.  COVET— COL.  JAMES    V..  BLACK.      * 

James  B.  Black,  who  is  twenty-nine  years  of  age,  has  been  a 
eitizen  of  Indiana,  since  181C.  In  the  fall  of  185G,  he  enterod 
Asbury  University  at  Greencastle,  where,  depending  entirely  on 


haviug  obtained  a   tutorship  in  the  State  University,  he  moved 
-thither  and  continued  his  education  till  the  breaking  out  of  the 
war.     The   week   Fort   Sumpter  was. attacked   he  enli 
private  in   the  first  company  formed  in  Monroe  counl 

in  being  assigned  to  one  of  the  three  months  re^i- 
• ,  the  company  to  which  he  belonged,  j  to  the 

Regiment  then  forming  at  Tenre  Haute,  into  whicl 
o  Mr.  B.  was  mustered  as  a  Sergeant.     Soon  i 
was   removed  to  Camp  Morton,  and   assigned  to  tlie'18th  Regi- 
ment, in  which  by  election   of  his   company,   he  was  made'!:.; 
Lieutenant.     On  the  16th  of  A-  he  was  mustered  into 

*  service  for  as  1st  Lieutenant  of 

Company  "H,"  lStli  Regiment,  and  immediately  went  with  his 
nt  to  join  the   army  of  Fremont,  and  with  it  participa- 
ted in  the  "Springfield  campaign.     He  was  with  Pope  at  the  first 
important  capture  cf  prisoners  at  Blackwaler.  and  with  Curtis 
in  thejPea  Ridge  campaign   and   march   through  Arkansas  to 
Helena.      With  the  13th  Corps  he  went  through  the  battles  and 
seige  of  the  Vicksburg  campaign  during  the  latter  part  of  which 
s  promoted  to   the  Captaincy   of  his  Company.      He  also 
participated  in  the  campaigns  under  Banks  up  the*  Teche  and 
on  the  coast  of  Texas.     As  Judge  Advocate  of  the  United  States 
red  the  special  comment  inr  Gen- 

eral Dana. 

In  January  1864,  the  18th  re-enlisted  as  Veterans,  and  while 
on  veteran  furlough,  he  received  orders  to  join  the  19th  Corps, 
t'o  which  this  Regiment  had  been  attached,  at  Washington. 
After  a  short  term  of  service  with  General  R.  S.  Foster  on  the 
-  River,  the  18th  went  to  join  Sheridan  in  the  Valley,  im- 
mediately after  his  assignment  to  that  Division.  Mr.  B.  par- 
ticipated with  his  regiment  in  all  the  battles  and  marches  of  the 
Valley  campaign,  and  after  the  battle  of  Cedar  Creek,  was  pro- 
"*-  moted  successively  Major  and  Lieut.  Colon  d  in  place  of  Major 
Williams  and  Lieut.  Col.  Charles.,  who  died  ol  wounds  received 
in  that  engagement.  >   . 

In  1804,  after  his   regiment  had   fought  its .  last  engaj 
and  had  gone  into  winter  quarters,  and  the  end  of  the  war  could 
easily  be  seen,  he  was  mustered  out  by  reason  of  the  ex] 
of  his  term  of  servh  .  he  has  been  a  resi- 

dent of  Indianapolis,    engaged  in  the  practice  of  law.     ] 
gentlemen  of  large  culture,  excellent  legal  attainments, 
every  way  fitted  to  the  duties  of  the  position  for  which  I 
nominated.     It  is  an   insult  to   patriotism  and  human:! 
to  institute  any  comparison  between  him  and  his  rebel  compet- 
itor, Mr,  A.  Ov  Packard,  ■. 
ture  of  1863,  i 
of  Indiana. 


asur-ERiNTr: 


AIINAIV. 


Barnabas  C.  Hoees,  is  a  native  Hoosier,  and  emphati 
self-made  man.     He  was  born  in  Washington  county,  < 
14,  1815.     For  much  of  his   early  training  he  is  indebted 
efficient  instruction  of  Hon.  John  I.  Morrison,  late  Treasi 
State.     When  eighteen  years  old  he  commenced  teaching 
common  schools  of  his  native  county.     Four  years  aftcr\. 
entered   Cincinnati   College,  where  for  on"  year  he  enjoyi 
instruction  of  such  teachers  as  W.  H.  McGuifey,  0.  M.  M 
and  E.  D.  Mansfield,  men  whose  names  have  become  lie: 
words  to  the  profession.     On   leaving   College  he  was   called  to 
take  charge  of  a  tfoarding  school  in  Eastern  Ohio,  where  he  re- 
mained  four  years.     From  thence  he  removed  to  Richmond,  in 
this  State,  and  there  established  and  maintained  an  inte: 
and  prosperous  school,  till  called  to  assume  the  superintend-no  v 
of  Earlham  College,  then  in   its  infancy.     After   remaining  at 
Earlham   two   years  he  gave  up  His  position  and  for  a  time  was 
engaged  as  civil  engineer  on  the  Indiana  Central  and  some  other 
railroads.     In  1851  he  was  made  Superintendent  of  the  Western 
Manual   Labor  School,  now   Bloomiugdale  Academy,  in  Parke 
county.     He  spent   over  fifteen   years  in  connection  with   this 
school,  and  his  labors  were  uniformly  crowned  with  success,  as 
can  be  testified  by  his  numerous  students  in  almost  every  county 
in  the  State.    In  1806  he  was  agayi   elected   President   of  Earl- 
ham College,  Wayne  county,  which  position  he  now   worthily 
fills.     On  the  passage  of  the  Normal  School  bill  by  the  L 
ture  in  1866,  he  was  appointed  by  the  Senate,  on  the  recom- 
mendation of  Governor  Morton,  a  member  of  the  Norma: 
Board— an  appointment   universally  satisfactory  to  educators 
when   made,  and  vindicated  by  the  ability  with    which   he  has 
performed  his  duties  in  connection  with    that  institution.     By 
appointment  of  the  Board  he  visited,  in  1865,  the  principal  Nor- 
mal Schools   of  the    United  States,   in    order  to  uscertai 
provisions  our  State  should  make  in  providing  accommodations 
for  such  an  institution.     His   able   report  to  the  Board  on  that 
subject,  as  also  many  of  his   addresses  Oh  educational  subjects, 
reform  schools,  etc  ,  have  been  published  and  largely  circulated. 
His  business  abilit;  a  tested  as  a  bank  director  and 

railroad  director,  and  have  never  be'en  found  wanting.     He  has 
also  displayed  muc:  fct   in  the   management   of  the 

many   benevolent   enterprises  which   have   lately   occupied  the 
attention  of  the  public;.     During  the  late  Avar  few*  did  more  than 
he,  according  to  their  ability,  for  the  maintenance   of  g  - 
families  and  for  the  relief  of  the  sick  and  wo    . 

As  an  educator  he  has  ever  been  among  the  foremost  in  th- 
State.  He  has  been  a  life-long,  earnest  and  zealous  friend  of 
free  schools  and  popular  education,  and  no  man  in  private  life 
has   done  more   to  make  our  publh  leasing  to  our 

youth  and  an  honor  to  the 


J*d 


M212GGS  J***51 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


